Eden Hall Mighty Ducks
by Elyse Black
Summary: Sequel to Team USA. Julie goes back to Minneapolis to finish out her summer with the Ducks. Then they head to Eden Hall Academy. D3 storyline. Please R&R!
1. On and On About You

_The Eden Hall Mighty Ducks  
_**Elyse Black**

**((Disclaimer: I do not have any rights to the Mighty Ducks, or Eden Hall for  
that matter. I only own the characters not depicted in the movies. Anything else I might have forgotten will be at the end of the chapter. Enjoy!))**

((a/n: Hey guys! So this is the sequel to _Team USA_, which was basically D2.  
This story is centered on D3. Although this time I won't be ridiculously  
adding in lines from the movie because as I was told that is in fact  
plagiarism and wicked boring. I guess you don't have to read _Team _USA to understand this but, it would make so much more sense if you did. I recommend it anyway. So obviously this is the Ducks at Eden Hall. The date set for this chapter is August 1st, a week before the scholarship induction in the movie's first scene. Then I'll have two more weeks of drama even before school starts. It should be good, I hope. Please review generously: good or bad, anonymous or not. Thanks!))

Julie stepped out of the expensive vehicle and stared up at the enormous house that was the Bank's residence. Adam got out behind her and went immediately to the trunk.  
"Julie, you okay?" His voice brought her back down to earth.  
"Yeah fine. Your house is ginormus  
"Ginormus? That's definitely not a word." He said laughing at her shocked face. "And it just looks really big. Once you're inside it's not so huge."  
"Yeah, maybe for you. And in the Julie dictionary ginormus is a word."  
"Sure it is." He said sarcastically opening the trunk of the car.  
"It is! Gigantic plus enormous equal's ginormus." She came to the trunk and helped him unload the five suitcases she had brought with her from Maine. Each one weighed at least 50 lbs.  
"T.J., can you come help me with this stuff?" He yelled in the direction of the garage.  
"Who's T.J.?"  
"My brother." He stated simply while grabbing two of the larger suitcases in each hand.  
"I didn't know you had a brother."  
"Yeah, I'm not exactly proud of him. T.J., c'mon man!"  
"I'm coming!" A voice echoed back at them.  
"He lives in the garage?" Julie asked grabbing one of the suitcases.  
"No, he just hangs out in there because it's the only place he can smoke." Adam said critically starting towards the house. The garage door opened and the most beautiful person Julie had ever seen walked out. He made the worn jeans and white t-shirt look like silk over his hockey toned body. His blonde hair was perfectly shaped, bright blue eyes staring out from underneath. He was seriously a perfect person, possibly a Greek god in Edina, Minnesota. _This_ is Adam's brother? After all she had seen Adam and his father, so how could something that beautiful come from the same gene pool? It kind of made her wonder what the hell happened to Adam. Not that Adam is bad looking. Adam is definitely good-looking, but his brother is like…great-looking.  
"Julie." He said as he easily picked up the remaining pieces of luggage and followed Adam into the house. Julie stood there slightly stunned until Adam called her from his place at the front door.  
"Hey Jul, can you close the trunk for me?"  
"Yeah, okay." She slammed it shut and entered the brick mansion.  
Adam was right; it wasn't as big inside the house. It was only two floors and a basement. Julie followed Adam, his brother and her luggage up the stairs to the third door on the left. The spacious room had already been set up with a bed, vanity table, and closet space. It was probably used as a guest room but it was really nice. Julie walked over to the window and pulled away the curtains. The view was of an in ground pool with canopied deck and pool chairs surrounding it.  
"No way! You have a pool?" Adam sat down on the full-size bed.  
"Yeah."  
"So maybe I will like living here." She said while plopping herself down next to him. "So what's with your brother?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"He's gotta be like what, at least 20. Why is he still living here?"  
"Actually he's 21 and he's home for college vacation. He should be going back soon, if he goes back."  
"Where does he go to college?" Julie asked trying to hide her curiosity.  
"Boston."  
"So what does T.J. stand for then?"  
"It doesn't stand for anything. His name is Philip. He's just an idiot."  
"Oh…that's nice." Julie thought it would be best if she didn't ask anything more about the infamous T.J. Adam didn't seem to connect with his brother, at least not the way Julie did with Erik.  
"What's with this?" Adam said pushing a strand of light brown hair away from her face.  
"It's a long story."  
"I'll wait."  
"Okay it's not really a long story it's just kind of hard to explain." He looked at her questioningly and she sighed. "Well I was just a little drunk…" Adam suppressed a laugh.  
"Just a little?"  
"Okay so I was drunk and I was emotional. I sat at a table on my birthday all alone for three hours at that stupid party. So when I couldn't take it anymore…"  
"Or when the drinks stopped coming."  
"Shut up, Adam. Anyway I got a ride home from this total sleaze who tried to hookup with me in his car. So at that point I was angry, frustrated, confused, tired and grossed out. I saw the dye and just decided to do it."  
"Because?"  
"Because I was tired of people looking at me like this little blonde princess who needs to be taken care of."  
"Nobody thinks that, Julie."  
"My father, my satanic mother, my brother, everyone."  
"Okay, I get it, your family sucks. But how does changing your hair change that?"  
"It doesn't really. I just needed to feel like I had control over my life. I could make things happen without anybody deciding for me."  
"I guess that makes sense." He stood up and stretched his arms over his head. "You should probably call your parents to tell them you got here okay."  
"Yeah." She said also standing up. Adam looked away from Julie uncertainly for a moment. Then he pulled her into a hug.  
"Glad you came."  
"Yeah so am I." Julie said hugging him back.  
"I think you'll like it here." He said as he walked towards the door. "See you in a bit."

**_Adam's POV  
_**I closed the door behind me and walked across the hall to my own bedroom. Directly below me I could hear T.J. blasting his music in the garage. I lie down on my bed and shut my eyes. I'm not sure having Julie live here is such a good idea. We've never had someone else living in the house. And she's my teammate. _And this has nothing to do with that fact that you've liked her since…forever, _I think to myself. Damnit, how frustrating is that? Yeah, okay I admit it, I like Julie. I always have. Since the first day I met her. I tried to pretend like it wasn't there. But in the back of my mind whenever someone said her name I'd jump. I just felt really stupid about it the entire time we were in California, because it was just one of those things. Sometimes you don't get to choose who you're attracted to. Then she went out with Dean and I knew for sure that I was stupid. For the two weeks I didn't see her everything was fine, I could just pretend like those feeling weren't there. But then the second I saw her step off that plane I felt it all over again. I'm pretty sure she's still with Dean and he is coming to Eden Hall. If there was just someway I could just make it all disappear I would. And what sucks is that nobody knows, not even Charlie, my supposed best friend. Having the girl I like sleep across the hall from me is going to be a living hell. I just hate that she has no idea. But if I just come out and tell her while she has a boyfriend then I'm gonna look like an asshole. What the hell? Nothing is ever simple is it?  
My thoughts are quickly interrupted by a shrill whistle outside. I stand up and look out the window. There on my driveway is Averman, Charlie, Guy, Golburg, Connie, Fulton, Jesse and to my surprise Russ. I turn around to see Julie running across the hall. She comes to the window next to me and waves to the team. Yeah, Adam go ahead and pretend everything is okay.  
"I gotta get my skates!" She says excitedly running back to her room to find her rollerblades. I motion for the team to wait for us. I grab my own beat-up skates and head down the stairs.

**((Okay, I think that's enough of a teaser for you guys. I realized half-way into writing this that in _Team USA_ I said that Julie had gone to Adam's house for dinner. And here I have her being shocked at the size of the house. So lets pretend she never saw the house and they went to some restaurant that night, k? Lol. This chapter is a tad boring, but for Adam's little confession. Oh _On and On About You_ is a Bowling for Soup song. I was trying really hard not go into a POV for a whole chapter but I couldn't do it. Review with comments, criticisms, ect. x0!))**


	2. Quiet Things That NoOne Ever Knows

**  
Chapter 2: **  
**((Disclaimer: I do not have any rights to the Mighty Ducks, or Eden Hall forthat matter. I only own the characters not depicted in the movies.TThe Quiet things that no one ever knows is a song by Brand New.Enjoy!)) **

**((a/n: Hey. Sorry I took so damn long to update. School got crazy, but today is my first official day of spring break. So I'll be updating mucho, hopefully. Thanks Gaffney06, Sara, Ghostwriter, Veggie's Onna- Dean is on the way…you'll see and Sphinx005- thanks for the tip.))**

**_Julie's POV_  
**I took a deep breath and dialed the number. I'm sitting on Adam's bed. Of course he has his own phone line in his room. I haven't talked to Dean since my I left Maine. And we barely talked about anything. I'm not sure what it is but it seems so boring now. It was so exciting in L.A., me liking him and seeing him from the corner of my eye. The big bad bash brother, his not so subtle flirting with me. Maybe it's just because I haven't seen him in a while, and it'll be fine when I see him again. But this waiting is making me anxious.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey, Dean."  
"Jules, hi. How are you?"  
"I'm fine."  
Downstairs I heard T.J. come in with what sounded like 20 people. He has a party every other day when his parents leave. If you wanna call 20 people in a garage a party. It made Adam so angry because he always had to clean it up. The music started in the garage underneath my feet. The floor of the messy bedroom was practically shaking.  
"Where are you? A rave?"  
"Nope. Adam's place. My temporary home."  
"Oh, how long have you been in Minneapolis?"  
"Nearly a week now. We're all missing you over here. When are you coming? The scholarship induction is in three days."  
"I know. I have a noon flight tomorrow."  
"Good. I miss you a lot." I say truthfully.  
"I know you do." I laughed. This is old Dean I knew.  
"Why are you so cocky?"  
"Oh no need to lie, babe. Admit you love it."  
"Sure, sure."  
"So am I still your boyfriend then, Gaffney?"  
"Hey, that's completely up to you. If not then I have a few others already signed up."  
"Ouch, who's cocky now?"  
"You deserve it." I say laughing. Adam walked into the room soaking wet. He brushed his light brown hair out of his face. "What happened?"  
"Charlie pushed me into the pool." I laughed at his face. He seemed to be in a better mood than he was earlier. Especially with T.J. in the garage with his frat buddies. "Is that Dean?" Oh shit, I had almost forgotten he was on the phone.  
"Okay Dean I gotta go. Looks like it's a swimming ducks party."  
"I wish I was there."  
"Yeah, I'll tell everyone you say hi. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye." I put the phone on the receiver on Adam's desk. He was rummaging through his dresser looking for his bathing suit. He kicked off his drenched shoes and pulled off his shirt. I stood there for a minute just watching him. He had the most amazing concentration. He turned around and saw me staring.  
"What did Dean say?"  
"Oh yeah. He says hi, he'll be here tomorrow." Something changed in Adam's eyes. He turned back around and kept searching for his shorts. I grabbed my flip-flops from the foot of the bed where I had kicked them off. I walked to my room and close the door. Something compelled me to look through the crack in the doorframe. Directly across the hall I could see Adam. He had his bathing suit on and was picking up his wet clothes off the floor and into the hamper. Hockey had toned his entire body. His muscular legs rippled when he walked around the messy room, his arms flexing in the fluorescent light. There wasn't quite a six-pack there yet, but it was well on its way. His shoulders were broad and bulking up. Well he was no Dean Portman but he didn't look bad at all. Slap in the face…Dean. Is it wrong of me to stand here and check out Adam? No, of course not, we're friends, roommates. He's like my brother. _Yeah, a really hott brother,_ said a voice in my head. Shut-up. I grabbed my bathing suit and quickly put it on. Forget it; I don't have a thing for Adam. I'm just missing Dean and going boy crazy. It'll all be okay when Dean gets here. Yeah, that's all it is.  
**End POV**

**_Adam's POV  
_**I get to pretend once again that I'm not jealous of Dean at all. The anger within me wants to flirt with Julie as much as possible before he gets here tomorrow. And what a better opportunity than a pool party at night? The nice guy hopes to god that Julie doesn't wear a bikini that I can just chill out and stick out tonight. Tomorrow Dean will be here and the temptation will die down. I grab a few towels from the bathroom linen closet and start down the stairs. In the backyard there are clothes thrown over all the chairs. The entire team was in the pool, messing around. Luis, Ken and Dwayne had arrived and were also in the pool. Dwayne with his cowboy hat still on. I laughed and put the towels down on the chair farthest from the water.  
"Banks, let's go, get in here." Fulton shouted before being tackled by Guy.  
"Yeah, cake eater. It is your pool after all." Jesse said swimming away from Averman.  
"Besides weren't you the first one in?" Charlie asked innocently.  
"You pushed me in, idiot." I yelled while taking off my sandals.  
"Where's Julie then?" I did a cannonball in next to Connie. She shrieked and I laughed. "Didn't you tell her to come down here?"  
"Yeah I did. She's probably changing."  
"Oh, finally! Get your ass in here, Gaffney!" Connie shouted towards the house. I turned around to see her yelling at Julie. Then I couldn't look away. NO, she wore a bikini, damnit. It was blue with yellow lettering and looked amazing on her. It's a string bikini and tight in all the right places. She is going to kill me. Her hair framed her face as she dipped her toe in the water.  
"No, way. It's freezing!"  
"No it isn't. C'mon just jump in." I swam over and looked up at her.  
"Come on Julie." She smiled and it felt like my stomach had exploded.  
"Promise me it isn't cold?" She was so focused on me that she didn't see Charlie get out and come up behind her.  
"I swear." He smiled at me and I smiled back. Julie was standing at the very edge of the pool.  
"Okay, I'll get in." She said dipping her toe in again.  
"So glad you agree." Charlie said as he pushed her forward lightly. She screamed as she was falling. When she resurfaced I don't think she realized that the pool was 8 ft. deep. Instinctively she reached out in front of her and she ended up grabbing my shoulders.  
"Holy shit, it's deep." She said as she gained control and started treading water.  
"Yeah, are you okay?" I wanted so badly to put my hands around her waist. But she started to let go of my shoulders and move away.  
"Yeah. I'm gonna kill Charlie." She laughed and swam over to where Charlie had resurfaced and jumped on his back. Lucky bastard. Another hour of frolicking and pool games, then Averman, Ken, Jesse, Dwayne, and Goldburg left. The remaining eight team members retreated to the bubbling hot tub adjacent to the pool. Thankfully Julie sat opposite me, in between Fulton and Connie. I was between Charlie and Luis. Next to Connie was Guy, as usual then Russ. Charlie had to bring up possibly the most awkward topic ever.  
"Okay so how many people in this hot tub are virgins?" He said without the slightest bit of shame, an evil grin on his face, looking around at his team.  
"C'mon Charlie, do you honestly except people to just raise their hands?"  
"Well," He raised his right arm. "I am."  
"Liar." I said laughing. I knew his wasn't. He is my best friend after all.  
"Adam the point is to make people feel more comfortable."  
"But you are lying." I said pointedly.  
"Fine, how many people are not virgins?" Reluctantly Luis and Fulton raised their hands with Charlie. "Hmm, as to be excepted. Wait a minute." He turned on Connie who was practically in Guy's lap. "You two haven't slept together yet?"  
"Nope." They said in unison. They were too cute for comfort.  
"No way! I thought for sure you guys had done it ages ago."  
"Well you thought wrong." Connie snapped, uncomfortable with Charlie's persistence.  
"Fine, chill. What the hell are you waiting for?"  
"It's none of your business."  
"But--"  
"Charlie, let it go." I scolded. He never knew when to stop.  
"Fine…Russ my man. What are you waiting for?"  
"I dunno. I really don't see what the big deal is. I saw a bunch of my friends, 16 years-old with kids. It just seems stupid if you're not--"  
"In love?" Julie added. She had been relatively quiet. I knew she was tired and her face was red from the heat of the water.  
"So what about you, Julie?" Charlie remarked slyly. I can't help but admit that I'm curious to hear this.  
"Nope, never done it."  
"Why not? Never been that close to any guy? Or is nobody worthy?"  
"Actually I came pretty close once. But I ended up not going through with it."  
"Why?"  
"It didn't feel right."  
"What didn't?"  
"The guy, the time, the place. And I don't regret it."  
"That's different. Hmm, so that brings us to…Banks." Shit. "Did you raise your hand?" Shit, shit, shit.  
"No." Shit…  
"Well why not? We both know you've done it." Shit, shut up Charlie.  
"You have?" Connie asked slightly surprised. I looked over at her still in Guy's lap. But it was just an excuse to see Julie's reaction next to them. Her face was slightly blank and I don't know what to make of that.  
"Yeah how come I never knew about it?" Guy asked from behind the long black sheet that was Connie's hair.  
"I'm not all that proud of it. It was a really stupid thing to do."  
"Why do you say that?" Charlie asked because he has never heard my take on things.  
"I dunno, but like Julie said, I wasn't in love. I did it just to do it. And so when I do find the right person, whenever that is, it won't be as special."  
"Wow you're such a woman." Charlie remarked.  
"Charlie you were like fourteen. You did it for all the wrong reasons."  
"Yeah but it wasn't that big a deal. I guess when I am in love then it might be special or something but I don't take back doing it." I looked over at Julie again. Her face was shining from the reflection of the water and she looked so innocent at that moment. Her eyes drifted up and met mine.  
"Okay guys, we'd better get out of here. Before Adam's parents get home."

I got up and led Charlie, Russ, Connie, Guy, Luis and Fulton out of the house. Back near the pool I started picking up abandoned clothes and arranging the chairs. I look over at the hot tub just in time to see Julie stepping out. The water spots on her body glinted in the moonlight. She came over to me and grabbed her clothes from the chair. I smile meekly and she returns it. She sat down on the pool chair and me next to her.  
"So that was certainly interesting."  
"Leave it to Charlie." I say looking down at my hands.  
"Did you mean what you said?" She stared intently at me. "About regretting it because it won't be special when you are in love?"  
"Yeah, I did." She smiled again. She stood up and slipped on her sandals.  
"You're too good to be true." I took my towel off my own hips and put it over her shoulders. She didn't have one and besides having her that close was kind of painful. She smiled and hugged me quickly. I wish it would never end and that she hadn't done it both at the same time.  
"Night, Adam."

…  
**((Next chapter will be Dean coming back and the scholarship induction. I hope you can tell that both of them are starting to crack. It's kind of sad actually. Review, please.))**


	3. I Dare You To Tell Me

**_((Disclaimer: I own nothing. I Dare You _is a song by Shinedown. Enjoy!))**_****_

_**I Dare You to Tell Me  
Adam's POV  
**_I watched in jealousy as Dean came through his gate and swept Julie off her feet. With their height difference, he practically had to lift her up so she could kiss him. God, how I wish I was the one kissing Julie right about now. It sounds horrible, I know, but I honestly can't help it. This girl has this crazy effect on me. The entire team welcomed Dean back once the PDA was over. Everyone came to pick up Dean then say goodbye to Jesse. The Halls were moving to Atlanta, and that sucks because we all love Jesse. I managed to say goodbye without any water works. The only one who did cry was, as usual Connie. Guy, being whipped the way his was, tried to comfort her, but that just led to an argument. Great, as if we needed yet another awkward rift in the group. Charlie has been bothering the shit out of me all day, asking extremely stupid questions. He is wigging out saying that I'm hiding something from him. In all fairness, I am hiding something from him, but that's none of his fucking business. The team planned to head back to town, get some pizza at Goldberg's, see a movie on Averman, and then head home. Tomorrow is the scholarship induction and we're having a breakfast with Bombay beforehand. All the out of town ducks were staying at a local's. Obviously Julie is staying at my place, Portman and Russ at Charlie's, Ken and Luis at Goldberg's and Dwayne with Guy. The thirteen of us packed into two mini vans heading back to town. Me, Charlie, Guy, Connie, Julie and Dean piled into Charlie's mother's car. I sat in the front seat, not eager to see anymore PDA from my favorite couple. It turns out that there wasn't any. In fact the whole ride was a giant headache because Guy and Connie had another argument over Charlie's lap. I was so grateful to get out and sit down at our usual table in Goldberg's Delicatessen. Connie and Julie head over to the bathroom, Connie still venting from her argument. It was a common event all through our lives: the Ducks, Bombay, and Minneapolis, the pond, Connie and Guy sagas. Charlie sat down next to me and started questioning me again. Damn it, he never knows when to shut the fuck up. Dean and Fulton looked over at Charlie and me quizzically.  
**End POV**

**_  
Julie's POV  
_**"And then he's all like, 'Connie, I don't know what I did.' and I'm like 'Well you should' and he throws an absolute bitch fit. It's so damn annoying. Then he sai-"  
"I know, con. I was there, in the car with you." I sat on the sink while Connie applied a fresh layer of makeup to her face.  
"Oh right. Sorry. I just hate when he treats me like a child who doesn't know anything. Besides I think he's cheating on me with his neighbor. What's her name?"  
"Anna." I sighed loudly. I never met the girl, but her name came up an awful lot.  
"Yeah, her. If not then he still flirts with her way too much. So I'm going to have to get back at him by flirting with someone." I sighed again. This is such classic Connie. Her and Guy will eventually get back together, because they always do. But not before she rips out his heart and steps on it by flirting with anyone available. Last time it was poor innocent Dwayne. She pulled a brown eyeliner pencil from her purse and lined her eyes. I watched her through the mirror. After silence she looked over at me and sighed.  
"What is it Jul?" I looked up at her. She was now lining her lips with a deep red pencil. "Come on. The sooner you tell me, the sooner we can get out of here." She replaced the liner and pulled out a crimson gloss. "Julie..." She put it on very liberally.  
"I think I'm falling for Adam." The tube hit the bottom of the sink with a clank. Connie turned to me with her mouth open in shock.  
"Banks?" was all she managed to sputter out.  
"Do we know another Adam?" I said sarcastically while she stared at me.  
"But, Julie, aren't you still with Dean?"  
"Yes, I'm still with Dean. That's what makes this so weird."  
"Then where is it coming from?"  
"I don't know!" I jumped down from the sink and stood next to her. "They're so different, they both make me feel different." I say while putting my light brown hair into a ponytail. Connie looked at me with her eyes narrowed.  
"Did anything happen between you and Adam after we left last night? I mean you were still in the hot tub."  
"No! No way, of course not. I wouldn't do that. Especially not to Dean." Connie breathed a sigh of relief then smiled at me. "What?"  
"The minute I saw you I knew you'd fall for Banksie."  
"Connie, that's so not helping. What am I supposed to do?"  
"Well I'd tell you not to like Adam, but too late." She said slightly amused, turning back to the mirror and running her fingers through her hair. "No but seriously. You have to decide who you like more. And until then, you are Dean's girlfriend, so cool it on the Adam front."  
"You don't get it, Con. I can't help it with him, I don't even try. I honestly don't trust myself alone with him. Oh my god, I'm living in his house!" I say almost laughing. It sounded so stupid out loud, but it was the truth.  
"Chill. I'm going to help you. Just so Dean doesn't feel like your pulling away while simultaneously sending a message to Adam, you're going to out there and kiss him. And I'm going to go make Guy sorry." She smiled wickedly. "Let's go."  
**End POV **

**  
_Dean's POV_  
**"What is it with you two?" I asked of Adam and Charlie who were arguing in hushed tones.  
"Nothing." Adam said harshly giving Charlie a horrible look. I'm sure it's nothing.  
I stare blankly ahead. My mind is still numb and spinning. My mother has cancer, my mom has cancer. Cancer, what the hell? How could I have been so self-absorbed and selfish to not realize that she is sick. I have to go back to Chicago as soon as possible. I know I promised her that I wouldn't be, but I feel guilty as hell. No scholarship is worth leaving her alone in her condition. I'll go to the induction tomorrow then go home. The one regret I have is-  
Julie sits down next to me and kisses me lightly on the lips. I make a small smile.  
"Hey." I say hoarsely. She returns the smile then joins in the conversation at the table. _Damn_ I think as I look at her, _why does she have to be so perfect?. It's going to make leaving that much harder._ And I can't bear to tell her the truth, not yet. As much as I hate to do it, I'm going to have to lie to her to leave.  
"Finally! What took you so long?" Fulton got up and greeting some guy at the door. He was tall, with short, spiky black hair wearing a leather jacket and jeans. Fulton brought him over to the table.  
"Guys this is my cousin, Derrick. D, this is the team. That's Dean, Julie, Connie, Luis, Dwayne, Russ, Charlie, Adam, Guy, Goldburg, Ken and Averman." He pointed at each of us respectively. I vaguely remember Fulton telling me about this guy. "So let's get out of here and head to the movie." At that we all got up and filed out of the restaurant and started walking to the mall. I just stare blankly ahead of me, my mind still numb. I'm trying to work out my plan for tomorrow. I'll say I need to head back to Chicago to pick up the rest of my clothes and then call her from there saying I need to stay. The induction will be over by two o'clock, so I'll need to find out when the first train into Illinois leaves. Julie taps my shoulder and brings me out of lalaland. She nods her head to her left. Directly in front of us is Connie, laughing animatedly with Derrick, her arm linked with his. I roll my eyes and look behind me. Poor Guy is watching them with tears in his eyes. Our large group reaches the theatre and Averman starts mutely counting heads.  
"Uhh…2,3,7,"  
"Fourteen, Averman." Russ answered. "That means we need fourteen tickets okay?" He continued like he would to a child.  
"Make it thirteen. I'm out of here." Guy stuffed his hands in his jean pockets and headed in the other direction. I'm pretty sure he was crying. I looked at Connie and she gave Julie and I a 'what did I do look?'. But she sighed and let go of Derrick, his job being done now that Guy was gone.  
"Actually, make it eleven." Julie piped up.  
"What? Why?"  
"I need to talk to you." She said in a slightly hushed voice. "We'll meet you guys out here when it's over." She laced her fingers with mine and headed out the door. Standing directly by the doors was Guy, crying in all his glory.  
"Aww Guy." Julie said as she rubbed his arm with her other hand. "Don't worry, you know she doesn't mean it. She's just jealous and angry and being really stupid. She'll get over it and come back to you."  
"I think its funny that she fucking tells me she loves me then is on the arm of another guy barely twenty-four hours after that." Julie looked at me sadly. I really did feel bad for him. Connie was always so intense with everything and Guy usually paid the price for it.  
"Well if it makes you feel any better, that Derrick guy is gay." Julie raised her eyebrows at me and Guy looked up. "Yeah, Fulton told me." I wasn't lying, he had told me. "He has a boyfriend and everything." Well it wasn't exactly sure about that but whatever helps.  
"But still, she's such a bitch. I don't think I can take it anymore." Guy said, wiping angry tears from his cheeks.  
"No, Guy. You and her just have to talk, I mean really talk. You love her, and you know she loves you."  
"Then why doesn't she trust me?" I look over at Julie's angelic face. I trust her . Not just to not cheat on me, but with my secrets and stuff. I can't think of a single reason why I shouldn't.  
"Connie has never trusted anyone easily, you know that. You two just need to talk." Guy stuffed his hands back into pockets and sniffled.  
"I guess so. Thanks, guys." He turned around and walked the remainder of the block before turning left. Julie looked at me, smiled then led the way to a bench. I realized that she had never let go of my hand. She smiled weakly before turning her eyes to her lap.  
"Do you trust me?" she asked, her eyes still on our interlaced hands in her lap.  
"Yeah." I stare at her, trying to catch her eyes.  
"Good." she sighed and finally looked up. "That's good. Yeah, I trust you too." Wow, that's makes me feel so much better about lying to her about tomorrow. Julie shifted her eyes to our hands again.  
"Julie?"  
"Yeah?" She answered, still focusing on her ruby red fingernail. I took my free hand and lifted her chin up.  
"What's wrong?"  
"Funny, I was about to ask you the same question." Uh oh.  
"I'm fine."  
"Then why did your hand get tense when I asked that?" She smiled and looked down at my hand. I was clutching hers very tightly.  
"Its' nothing." I say while loosening my grip.  
"So much for trusting me."  
"I do trust you."  
"So tell me what's going on with you?"  
"It's nothing."  
"So nothing is why you've barely said a word since you got here, why you've been staring off into space all day." What the hell am I supposed to say to that? I have to tell her the truth. I sigh and rub my thumb against hers.  
"I'm going back to Chicago tomorrow." Or part of it. "To get the rest of my stuff. I might not come back until the day before school starts."  
"That's ten days from now. Why are you staying so long?"  
"My mom wants me to stay with her for a while."  
"Oh, okay. You as long as you come back in time for school." I hate having to lie. Especially to Julie. But she just wouldn't get it.  
"Yeah." Time to change the subject. "So, what's up with you?"  
"Oh, not much. I was just thinking about last night."  
"Last night?"  
"Are you a virgin?" _Huh?_  
"What?"  
"That's what we were talking about last night. The team I mean. Well not all of us. Just a few, in the hot tub." She said in one breath.  
"Oh." That was random.  
"It's okay if you're not. I was just curious."  
"I'm not." Hmm, awkward. We go from my mom to school to sex. Wow…  
"Okay." That just makes me safely assume she isn't. But that doesn't really matter much.  
"That's all that was on your mind?"  
"Yeah, I guess." Now who is lying…changing the subject again.  
"So how life at the Bank's mansion?"  
"Oh, fine. Yeah, his family is really nice and yeah, it's good."  
"Good…so is that all that you wanted to ask me about?"  
"Pretty much. And, well I didn't really want to see that movie."  
**End POV **  
**((a/n: Okay so I just came up with this scene and since this is like the fifth rewrite of the chapter I'm not sure what came after this so, I'm just going to skip to the next scene.))**

**  
_Adam's POV_  
**Awesome day. Standing in the blistering sun wearing my heavy hockey jersey, over a shirt and tie and watching my favorite couple in front of me. I really want to be happy today, but I just can't. Because every time we're not clapping Dean has his hands on Julie's hips. It's driving me crazy. And the worst part is that I can't help it. I don't try to feel this way, I just do. And every time he touches her I just wish it were me. So I'm not sure I can stand here on stage in front of people for much longer without cracking and ripping Dean's head off. I look into the crowd instead. I see my mother, all dolled up and talking to her society friends instead of actually listening to what the dean is saying. Neither am I, maybe I should.  
"..Where we hope the ducks will be happy warriors, and lead us on to glory and divisional championships." Thank god. Clap, everyone, it's over. We all step off the platform and head in opposite directions. Before I can go far a hand claps onto my shoulder.  
"Good job, son."  
"Oh thanks, Hans."  
"Good luck. I'll see you later eh, Adam?"  
"Sure." I look over at the lake and see Coach talking to Charlie, who starts walking away looking really pissed. Which one of them should I deal with first? Definitely…  
"Coach, what's up with Charlie?"  
"He's angry at me."  
"What for?" Coach Bombay sighed and looked at the grass around his feet.  
"The Junior Good Will Games Committee hired me as the Director of Player Personnel. I'll be in charge of their junior hockey program."  
"That's amazing." Confused, bad part is?  
"It's worldwide, Adam. I'll be traveling everyday." Oh…  
"So you won't be our coach at all?"  
"Eden Hall JV Coach Ted Orion has gladly stepped in."  
"Are we even going to see you anymore?"  
"Of course. I won't even forget you guys. I'll come and visit."  
"It's still not the same, Coach. But I understand, if that helps."  
"I know, Adam. I'm sorry. Can you tell Charlie that?"  
"Yeah."  
"See you later." He walked back up to the main area where a bunch of people were waiting. I stared at the still water for a few minutes then went up myself. Someone comes behind me and gently touches my hand.  
**End POV **

**_  
Julie's POV  
_**"Hey, your mom told me to find you. We're heading back." I say after I get Adam's attention.  
"Oh, okay." He looks around at the remaining people."Where's Dean?"  
"He's heading back to Chicago until next week." I say, slightly bitter. I still don't understand why his mother is being so selfish and making him go all the way back. He just got here yesterday. "What did Coach say?"  
Adam looked around before answering.  
"I'll tell you when we get to my house." He nodded to Charlie who was standing a few feet away, looking extremely angry.  
"Guys let's go! Party at Adam's house." I looked at Adam who rolled his eyes. His mother volunteered to have everyone over for a pool party. Little did she know that they invited themselves over practically every night. She didn't care anyway, her and Phil were heading to some island for the next two days anyway. The odds were good that today's pool part would become a three-day sleep over kind of deal.  
…  
**((Okay that was officially the longest chapter I've ever written. And I was going to keep going too. I just wanted to get the scholarship induction out of the way. Next chapter something huge happens and Uhh yeah.  
**

**OMG I got my laptop back, along with iPod #8. Me and technology are like woahh. Monday is my last official day of school! Woo! Then stupid finals start. I am so happy tho… **

Ummm responses:  
Sara: Yeah, I know. Poor Dean has suffered enough.  
Ghostwriter + Gaffney06: thanks for reviewing!  
Hiding in the Shadow: You'll see  
Haha I Win: I love Brand New too! I want a new album already! Yes, sexual tension and plenty of it. I love it.

**Dean came back but alas he is gone again and we may not see him for quite some time. What will happen?  
Well you'll just have to wait and see!  
REVIEW!))**


	4. I Never Meant To Be So Cold

**(( Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just T.J. Cold is an amazing song by Crossfade.))  
_  
I Never Meant to Be So Cold  
Julie's POV  
_**I don't think I've ever been more bored in my life. Adam's parents had come home in the middle of the three-day party after the induction and obviously weren't very happy. Since then all of the ducks have been quarantined inside their houses. As if I needed the temptation of being locked up in a house with Adam. I've tried calling Dean numerous times and left at least four messages but he has yet to call me back. There is something going on with him, I just don't know what. I know he's lying to me about going back to Chicago and the only reason I let his phony excuse slide is because I'm lying to him too. Well not necessarily lying, but I feel guilty because I know for sure that I have feelings for Adam. They aren't exactly one-sided either, which makes me feel worse. It's like I'm leading Adam on then running back to Dean, which isn't fair to either of them. For the last three days I've been trying to take Connie's advice and decide which of them I like more. But that's not working at all because I like them for such different things. And now with the absence of Dean and his lying to me, I feel like all I have left is Adam. And if I fall into one of my moods where I don't think, I might just act on my feelings for him. Speaking of which…  
"Hey." Adam says as he sits down next to me. I had my jeans rolled up and my feet dangling in the edge of the pool. "What's up?"  
"Nothing, I'm just really bored."  
"Tell me about it." He slips off his sandals and puts his feet in the water next to mine.  
"Where's T.J.?" I ask so as not to fall into an awkward silence.  
"At the store. He ran out of beer or something."  
"So is Eden Hall nice?"  
"You saw it. The whole place basically looks exactly like that. Brick, perfect, preppy. T.J. seemed to have a pretty good time there."  
"I wonder why, I heard the curriculum is pretty hard."  
"I came sum it up for you in one word." I raise my eyebrows. "Dorms."  
"Of course." I say laughing. "But aren't the girls and guys dorms separate?"  
"A garden in between isn't quite separate. It's not hard to sneak out."  
"Funny how you already know all of this. Planning on doing a lot of sneaking out there Banksie?"  
"Not really. But with Charlie as my roommate I might just need to."  
"Yeah." I say as I think about Connie being my roommate. Not that I don't love her, but we were roommates before and I already know how crazy she is. "Oh yeah, you never told me why Charlie was upset at the induction?"  
"Oh, that. Yeah, Bombay isn't going to be our coach this year." I feel my mouth drop open. "He got a huge gig with Junior Good Will Games and he took it."  
"Do you have any idea who our new coach will be?"  
"Some guy named Ted Orion. But you can clearly see why that didn't go over too well with Charlie. Bombay is like his dad."  
"That sucks."  
"Yeah." Adam kicks his foot outward and it splashes water in my face. "Oh, sorry." He says, smiling evilly and offers me the sleeve of his shirt to wipe my face.  
"I will get you back for that." I say with a grin.  
"You can try." He responds, still smiling. Why does he have to be so adorable? _Think, Julie._ I say to myself, _don't do something stupid_.  
"Oh, hi T.J." I say looking over Adam's shoulder. Just as he turned I let myself fall into the water grabbing him with me. I resurface at the exact moment he does. "Didn't I tell you that I'd get you back?"  
"You'll pay for that one, Gaffney." He says, spitting out the water from his mouth.  
"Oh, you think so do you?" I say as I swim away from him. He quickly swam after me but I was much faster. I swim to the center of the pool where I finally get tired and stop because my jeans are so heavy. Adam catches up to me. "Hey, hey unfair advantage."  
"Admit defeat then." He says as he treads closer.  
"Fine." I say as I duck my head under the water. I come back up and spit water into his face. "I admit that I defeated you." He rebounds much faster than I thought he would and grabs my feet as try to swim away. Before I know it he has both my hands…okay so he isn't holding me tightly and I could easily get away but I don't try. My flirtatious side takes over and instead I pull myself closer to him.  
"We both know you won't actually do anything." Our faces are barely a foot apart. I know that if I do this, I can't go back. But at this moment, I don't really care.  
"I'd never actually hurt you, Julie." Adam says softly. _Kiss him, you know you want to…_  
"Hey guys! Dinner is ready!" T.J. yells as he walks out on the back porch. _Thank god,_ I think as I pull myself away and swim towards the ladder. But that wasn't before T.J. had a good look at what was going on.  
"Not hungry." I say as I grab my shoes from the edge of the pool, go back inside and immediately go to take a shower. Once I was finished I wiped the fog from the mirror and stare at my reflection.  
"That was much too close, Julie." I say to myself as I dry my hair with a towel. I couldn't keep this in anymore. I run back to my room, get dressed then to Adam's room. He is downstairs eating dinner so I close the door and sit down on his perfectly made bed. I grab the phone from the bedside table and dial.  
"Hello?"  
"Tell me I'm stupid." I say while letting my head hit the pillow.  
"Why, what happened?" Connie says on the other line. I could hear her chewing something.  
"What are you eating?" I ask, the noise was getting on my nerves.  
"A tootsie roll, now don't change the subject. What happened?"  
"I umm, almost kissed Adam?"  
"WHAT?"  
"We were in the pool and it was totally innocent… until this completely different girl took over my body and I was five inches from his face. Thank god T.J. felt like being obnoxious and coming outside to tell us that dinner was ready."  
"Oh, T.J. is so gorgeous."  
"The fact hasn't escaped me Connie, but thanks for caring about me."  
"Julie, I do care, you know I do. I told you what to do. Besides I don't see what would be so bad about you and Banks hooking up."  
"Besides that fact that I'm with Dean?"  
"Well Dean isn't here is he?"  
"CONNIE!" I hear Connie's shrill laugh.  
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding. But you have to decide who you want. Hate to break it to you babe, but you can't have them both."  
"I can't do this, I need to talk to Dean."  
"He still hasn't called you back?"  
"Nope."  
"You're not gonna tell him about this whole Adam thing, are you?"  
"I'm not sure yet. I'm going to call him right now. See you tomorrow."  
"Bye."  
I hang up and stay completely still. I could still hear voices downstairs, so I have time. I pick up the receiver and dial Dean's home number for what seems like the millionth time.  
"Hello?" A female voice answers to my surprise.  
"Hello, this is Julie Gaffney. Can I speak to Dean, please?"  
"Sure, hold on." I sigh outwardly. I honestly don't know what to say to him.  
"Julie?" Dean picks up, slight surprise in his voice.  
"Hi Dean."  
"Hey, what's going on?"  
"Not much. I was just sitting here wondering why haven't you called me yet? Or returned my calls for that matter?" I ask angrily. I hear Dean sigh. "I know you're lying to me about going back. I'm just not sure why you feel like you need to."  
"It's not like you're being completely honest with me."  
"But I've never purposefully lied to your face. It hurts me that you don't trust me enough to just tell me."  
"You won't understand."  
"You won't let me try to understand!" I'm losing my temper, I know it. "Tell me honestly right now, are you coming back?"  
"I'm not sure yet. Probably not."  
"Why?"  
"I can't tell you."  
"Fantastic." I say sarcastically.  
"Fine, then you tell me what the hell is going on with you lately? Don't lie to me now and say it's nothing. There is something going on with you and you're hiding it from me." Tears build up in my eyes. "And it's been this way ever since you got to Minneapolis. What is it, Julie? Another guy, or something else?"  
"I can't tell you." I say mimicking his earlier response.  
"Then maybe we should just take a break or something." The tears fall down my face.  
"Maybe we should." I wipe a tear from my lip. "Because I'm not sure I can be with someone who doesn't trust me."  
"Same here."  
"So that's it then?" I ask, my voice choking.  
"Yeah, I guess it is."  
"Bye."  
"Bye." He sighs and the line goes dead.  
**End POV**

_Dean's POV  
_"Fuck!" I say as I hang up the phone. I think I just broke up with the most incredible girl I've ever gone out with, and I'm not sure how the fuck it happened. We've fought before but never broken up. That wasn't even a fight really, it was just a stupid…thing. I don't even know how to go about describing it, but I know it was stupid. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, I just couldn't tell her what was really happening because she wouldn't understand. And I can't just call her back right now because she is pissed at me and probably won't answer.  
"Goddamn it." I say to myself.  
"So what are you going to do?" I spin around and there is my mother, standing in the doorway to the kitchen.  
"I'm not sure." I say, burying my face in my hands. My mother sits down across from me and weakly grabs my hands.  
"Why didn't you tell her?"  
"She wouldn't understand me wanting to stay."  
"I don't understand you wanting to stay, either, baby. I'm thirty-four years old, don't you think I can take care of myself?"  
"Of course, but you're sick, you need my help." I say desperately.  
"Dean, in Minneapolis there is a girl you care about, a good school you should be in and a whole team that you deserve to play on."  
"But you're not there."  
"This is my home. I'm not going anywhere. But you, you're young, you can go anywhere, and yet you choose to stay here?"  
"Say what you want but I'm not going back. You won't admit it but you need me." She smiled sadly at me. "I'll go back to public school and get a job to take care of us."  
"Nobody should have to spend their teenage life being so damn responsible, I would know." I sigh, thinking about all that she sacrificed when I was born just before her eighteenth birthday.  
"I have to." She shook her head, got up silently and left.  
I look at the phone anxiously and finally pick it up and dial.  
"Hello?"  
"Hey, Fult. It's Portman." I just realized that he has never called me by my first name…  
"Oh hey, what's up?"  
"Me and Julie broke up." Way to just lay it out there, asshole.  
"What?" He asked shocked. "Why? You guys were so _together _the other day."  
"Not really. She doesn't trust me and I'm not being honest with her and she is keeping shit from me and she just got fed up and she freaked out and I panicked and said that we just shouldn't be together. Which is completely ridiculous because Julie is probably one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me and I don't know what to do." Fulton was silently listening on the other line. "Fulton?"  
"Holy shit. That's out of control."  
"Yeah." I say rubbing my eyes.  
"So I guess in between all of that she didn't tell you the big news?"  
"Big news? Good or bad?"  
"Bombay is leaving. Take it as you will."  
"What the hell? Why?"  
"He got some huge job. Apparently we're not as important. He's a dick, we knew that."  
"Yeah." I say recalling the time Julie first kissed me. Those were my exact words to her…how romantic.  
"So when are you getting your ass back up here?"  
"I'm not sure yet. Uh, my mom needs me to do some stuff here." I lied.  
"Well make it a.s.a.p., dude. Charlie is wigging out and I need someone here to hang out with."  
"Yeah. Hey, when you see Jules, can you tell her I'm sorry?"  
"I will. See you soon hopefully."  
"Okay, bye Fulton." I hang up.  
This lying thing is really getting to me. I know that I'm not coming back, I'm just still figuring out a way to tell the team that.  
**End POV**

_Adam's POV  
_I sprint up the stairs, my hair still wet from the interesting pool occurrence. T.J. sat there all through dinner, smiling across the table at me. He thinks he actually saw something. What he saw was a really tense moment that was probably a mistake in Julie's eyes. In mine though, to quote Guy, 'I was this close.' I turn to the right and open the door. There sitting on my bed is Julie, hysterically crying. At the most vulnerable moment, she looks possibly even more beautiful. Wearing a huge black sweatshirt and shorts, her hair still wet and falling around her pink, tearful cheeks. Of course, this is the farthest thing from my mind because firstly I care about why she is so upset. I rush into the room and kneel in front of her.  
"Julie?" I ask looking into her eyes. She just looks at me sadly then blinks out more tears. "What happened?"  
"I don't know." She chokes out, her whole body shaking. I gently hold her face in both my hands. She covers my hand with hers and continues to cry. I wipe away the tears with my thumbs as they fall. I had only seen her cry once before, at the airport before she went back to Bangor, and it wasn't quite this intense. Five straight minutes of this go by.  
She sniffles and breathes in deeply. The tears don't stop, but they come in less amounts. I take my hands from her face and sit down next to her.  
"Sorry." She said still sniffling, using the sleeves of the hoodie to wipe the tears off her face and neck.  
"Don't be." I say still staring at her intently. "Are you okay?"  
"Sure." She says unconvincingly.  
"What happened?"  
"Dean and I broke up." She said simply. Hide your happiness, Banks.  
"Oh…what happened?"  
"He was lying to me about going back to Chicago and I called him out on it and he freaked out and then I lost my temper and he suggested we break up and so we did."  
"That's stupid." I say honestly. "Neither of you meant it. You should call him back." Yes, I just said that. Me, the one who is crazy about the girl in front of me, suggested that she call and take back her boyfriend.  
"No, not now. I'd have to do it with a clear head and I dunno, maybe it's a good thing. I mean we should take a bit of a break for a while. With school starting and everything."   
Suddenly, and to my complete surprise, Julie stands up, grab my hands and pulls me up next to her.  
"What?" I ask quizzically. She smiles and a single tear falls from her eye.  
"Nothing." She says, then throws her arms around my shoulders and hugs me tightly. I awkwardly respond and hug her back.  
….  
**6-15-06  
((Okay, so this is this fastest I've ever updated any of my stories, ever. But last chapter was kind of short and boring.  
And I didn't get as many reviews as I had hoped ((ehem that means you review more, mmkay?))  
My friend who edited this for me says: Why do they always end up hugging at the end of a chapter? Why not a kiss already?  
Haha, yes that is true. And they will kiss, not to worry, soon. One or two more chapters before school starts and we get into the actual movie and SCOOTER (yum) drama and other such lovely things. Umm responses:**

**Ghostwriter: Thanks for reviewing  
Gaffney06: I will, its just taking a while and thanks. I have 2 last finals and then done!**

**Anyway review with comments, criticisms, and suggestions.**

**You guys are the only thing keeping me motivated so make it happen))**


	5. Catalyst

**((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just the non-movie characters are mine. Catalyst is a song by New Found Glory))**

_Julie's POV  
_I woke up the next morning feeling slightly relieved. I know that things aren't really over between me and Dean. I still have very strong feelings for him, and I know he feels the same way about me. But those are taking a little vacation for a while. I'm not as innocent a girl as people may think; I have dated lots of guys. I have no problem exploring my feelings further, or making the first move for that matter. Like with Dean, he walked me to my dorm and I kissed him. Just like that. I've gotten to the point where, yes, it would be nice if the guy made the first move, but they usually don't, so you have no other choice. I moved Dean and his lying to me to the back of my mind, and right now I want to focus on Adam. I know he likes me, and I admit that lately I've been attracted to him. My way of figuring things out may be slightly risqué because my way is kissing them. A single kiss says a lot. Of course I do talk to the guy, but not until we kiss and bring out feelings out into the open. That sounds really stupid and slightly slutty, but it's just the way I do it. I'm not exactly a patient person, and tip-toeing around the subject just doesn't work for me. You could say I'm daring, no matter what I'm doing. If my mind is set to it, then you better believe I'm going to do it. So right now my mind is set to figuring out Adam's feelings for me, and what I'm feeling in return, and what the both of us are going to do about it. My biggest issue with all of this is of course Dean, and the team. Nobody knows about my feelings for Adam besides Connie, and I don't think Adam has even told Charlie. Right now the only people who know about Dean and I breaking up are Connie and Adam, and probably Fulton. If it gets beyond those three, then it's public gossip, and the team would have a field day. So for the moment, I'm not telling anyone about the breakup. And until I know for sure what's going on, nobody knows about me and Adam.  
I put on the necklace my brother had just sent me and pull my hair into a ponytail. Then a knock comes at the door.  
"Come in." I say, knowing it was Adam. He walks in and closes the door behind him.  
"Hey."  
"Hi." I say with a small smile.  
"How are you?"  
"Actually, I'm okay. I'm figuring it all out, one step at a time. I just have one favor to ask you."  
"Yeah, anything."  
"I don't want anyone to know about this whole thing yet. Because we both know that this team and big news don't mix well."  
"Yeah, that would definitely be a mess. I wasn't going to say anything. Don't worry."  
"I wasn't worried. I trust you, Adam." I say smiling. I grab my inline skates from next to the bed and follow Adam outside. The rest of the team was waiting one street over.  
"So let me get this straight. You guys just skate around the entire Twin Cities area, all day, for fun."  
"Basically, yes." He laughed at my confused facial expression. "It's a lot more fun than it sounds. Besides you haven't even seen half of the good stuff there is to offer around here."  
"I'm pretty sure I saw every tourist attraction there is to offer when I came with Tibbles for the Goodwill Games."  
"That's the beauty of the 'hometown', Julie. There is so much that isn't tourist stuff, that all of us who have lived here for years can show you." I still looked at him confused and he laughed again. "Then I guess you're just going to have to trust me."  
"Okay." I say, still sounding unconvinced. I'm not all that stable on these skates, and unless you haven't already realized, goalies don't have to skate all that much. I can skate of course, I even did figure skating for two years, but ice is completely different from the road.

((I didn't actually have anything planned for them to see, aside from the usual, like Goldberg's Delicatessen and the Mall and stuff. They already did all of that crap in the last chapter. Besides this is only a set up to the good stuff.))

After five hours of skating around I realized that Adam was right. It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be and with everyone there, there wasn't a dull moment. The only thing that actually shocked me was when Fulton pulled me aside and told me about his conversation with Dean. I wasn't surprised that had told Fulton, but to ask Fulton to apologize for him was kind of unexpected and weird. He was the one who suggested the break in the first place. And if he really wanted to apologize he could just call me and tell me so himself.  
We were only two houses away from Adam's when I realize I was skating over really uneven road and lots of gravel. But that wasn't what hurt me. It was that as I was falling I tripped over the curb and twisted my ankle underneath me when I landed in the grass.  
"Oww!" I said loudly as I hit the ground. Adam skated over expertly and kneeled to me. I groaned and held my ankle, which felt like it was on fire. "Damn, it hurts!"  
"Here." He pulled my leg out straight and slowly pulled off the skate. "Don't put any pressure on it. Do you think you can walk?"  
"Are you kidding me?" He smiled.  
"Can you hobble on one foot if I support you?" He explained.  
"You can't support me and I definitely can't hobble on skates."  
"I'll be right back." He got up and skated to his house. This is bad, right before season starts I get hurt. I had broken plenty of things in the past, and felt pain way worse than this. I just didn't want to injure myself further by trying to walk on it yet. If it was fractured I was screwed. I prop myself up on my hands. When I look down I see it beginning to swell.  
"Crap." I say to no one in particular. I look towards Adam's house and see Adam running toward me, closely followed by T.J.  
"Take off the other skate and grab them both." T.J. said to Adam when he finally caught up with him. Adam pulled the other skate off my foot and held them both by wheels. "Are you okay?" T.J. asked me.  
"Yeah, I just need to get inside and put some ice on it." He looked into the road and discovered the source of my fall. **  
**"Okay, we need to get you inside, but that crap might cut up your feet if you walk. So how much do you weigh?"  
"What?" I ask, half confused, half shocked.  
"Never mind." He put one arm under my back and the other behind my knees. I instinctively put my arms around his neck. "You're pretty light." He said as he carried me with ease towards the house. Adam followed us with my skates. To my further surprise, T.J. carried me all the way to my room, and placed me gently on the bed. Adam came up a few minutes later with a cold compress. "Wrap it and ice it. I'll be back in a bit." He closed the door behind him when he left.   
Adam sat in a computer chair at the edge of the bed with my foot in his lap. He wrapped it slowly and carefully, and then held the ice on it.  
"This sucks." I say to myself.  
"It's probably just twisted, at worse a sprain. Keep it wrapped and ice it and you'll be fine by first practice." He said, practically reading my mind. "Trust me if it were broken you'd be in a lot more pain. If it were fractured you wouldn't be able to move your foot at all."  
"Break things a lot do you?"  
"I've broken a wrist, a toe and a rib. Fractured a finger and my other wrist. All hockey."  
"Yeah well I raise you a broken arm, finger, toe and one of the bones in my foot. Fractured two fingers, another toe, my wrist and my ankle."  
"No way that was all from hockey."  
"Hockey, figure skating, gymnastics, ballet, karate, and all kinds of other crap. I did basically everything when I was little."  
"Interesting." He smiled and adjusted the ice pack. "What about tares, I bet I have more of those than you.  
"Oh really? Ligament in my leg, tendon in my hand and muscle also in my leg."  
"Tendon in my arm and leg, ligament in my leg."  
"We're both pretty messed up."  
"Sports will do that to you." He said with a laugh. "It looks like it stopped swelling. You should see if you can put any pressure on it. If it still hurts we'll put the cream stuff on it." He stood and went to the dresser to replace the paper towel covering the compress. I sit at the edge of the bed and timidly put weight on both feet. Just as I start to stand, my ankle gives way and I start falling forward. Adam turns around just in time to catch me. And by catch me I mean him holding me by the waist and me clinging to his arms. He's only a few inches taller than me and when I look up his face is once again barely a foot away.  
"Apparently I can't walk yet." I say sarcastically with a short laugh. I really hate awkward situations, and this is one of the worst ones. I finally stand up completely straight but only one foot. Unbalanced I fall forward again, and once again Adam catches me. I steady myself by putting my hands on his shoulders. I look up again and only see his eyes, six inches from mine. He leaned forward slightly as if he were going to kiss me. As if by some miracle the guy would make the first move, but he didn't. He looked at the floor shyly. I take one hand from his shoulder and gently push his face back to look at me. He leaned forward again but stopped right before my lips.  
"Julie, I…"  
"No, I want you to." And with that I pushed myself up on my one good foot and closed my eyes just as my lips made contact with his. It was even better than I thought it would be. It took everything I had not to laugh at the hilarity of the situation. Even when I completely lost balance, neither one of us seemed capable of breaking the kiss. Instead we both stepped back until we hit the bed. With Adam still holding me securely, I leaned back until I was lying down. Adam suspended himself over me and deepened the kiss. I brought one hand up to his neck and the other to his face, pulling him closer. I ran my fingers through his smooth hair and just as I was hoping it wouldn't end I heard the door open. We both pulled away from each other and turned to see T.J. standing in the doorway. He grinned and shut the door. Adam immediately got up and left the room. I sat up on the bed and laughed.  
**End POV**

_Adam's POV  
_I shut the door and leaned against it. T.J. was standing against the opposite wall with a huge smile on his face.  
"Shit." I say simply. T.J. laughs.  
"Sorry I uh, intruded." He says, still laughing.  
"I think it's a good thing you did." I say honestly. It was so unexpected but so perfect. I cannot believe that had just happened. I had actually stopped myself, thinking she just broke up with Dean and…no she kissed me. And it was amazing. "I think I'm just gonna go and…" I break off mid-sentence. I'm still slightly in shock.  
"And take a nice cold shower." T.J. said, handing me the beer he had in his hand.

7-2-06  
FINALLY! Hard to believe I wrote this in like two hours and I've been trying to come up with it for like two weeks. I already have half of the new chapter for Duck Pedigree written, so I'll post that this week. Friday, the 7th I'm going on a cruise with my family and friends for 8 days so I won't be able to update. I might even finish the rewrites on Alex and Jay this week so I leave nothing without an update.  
Umm, yeah, this is like the BIG chapter, and I'm sorry it's so short and even a little boring, I just needed to get them to finally kiss. Next will be more Julie/Adam action, then school starts where there's Julie/Scooter action.  
Most of the reviews I did respond to but I'm going to post them here anyway.  
Gaffney06- Thanks for reviewing  
Sphinx005- I'm one of the biggest Julie/Dean fans. But I just couldn't deny the obvious chemistry she had with Adam, so I had to write it. But don't worry Dean will be back.  
a- Thanks. I ended up doing amazing on my finals, most of them anyway. Thanks for reviewing, I hope you keep reading  
Donna79- at first I couldn't understand why people liked Julie/Adam fics but I've grown to appreciate them. Dean will be back again and she talks to him beforehand. I think you'll like the next one.  
RIP MuM- You had to have posted that review at like 2 a.m., about the same time I wrote this. I hope you like this one, especially cause Team USA was kind of blegh. Thanks for reviewing.

Please review and keep me inspired.


	6. Halo

**((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just the non-movie characters are mine. Halo is a song by Bethany Joy Lenz.)) **

A full twenty-four hours had passed since the "incident" and Julie and Adam had barely seen each other since. It was very easy for both of them to sit in their respective rooms all day. The only time they had to see each other was at dinner, when Julie, Adam, T.J., Phillip and Adam's mom, Clarisse sat down around the table. Adam and Julie were on opposite ends, not looking up from their plates. T.J. looked back and forth between them and laughed periodically. Phillip and Clarisse were sharing polite conversation, which was a load of crap. Their marriage was on the rocks and had been for some time, they were only putting up with each other to look good for Julie. Most of the time, one if not both of them were absent from dinner.  
"So kids, how was your day?" Clarisse asked in between sips of wine.  
"Fine, you know the same." Adam mumbled and took a large bite of his steak. For the next two minutes the only sound was of forks hitting plates or someone having a drink. Clarisse put down her fork and looked around at each member individually.  
"Alright, will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on here?" T.J. suppressed a laugh and tilted his head down. "T.J.? Julie? Adam?"  
"Uh," Adam coughed. "What do you mean Mom?"  
"I mean it's like somebody died in here. Why in the hell is everyone so damn quiet?"  
"Oh that's nothing, Mrs. Banks, really. It's just uh we're really nervous about school and uh, I don't know, just need to relax." Julie answered with a stammer.  
"Of course, I mean it is only four days away." T.J. added still smirking.  
"Can I please be excused?" Adam said while getting up.  
"Sure Adam. Why don't we all leave? Looks like you guys were finished anyway." She got up and walked to the study, taking her wine glass with her. Adam sprinted up the stairs, followed by Julie two minutes later. T.J. retreated to his cloud of smoke in the garage.

Julie was lying on her bed, head dangling over the edge. She got up when Adam appeared in her doorway.  
"Hey." She said and then pulled her hair into a ponytail.  
"Hey. This came today." He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. "Our schedules from school."  
"I figured we'd have to stop avoiding each other sooner or later. I just didn't think you would come up with such a lame excuse."  
"We weren't avoiding each other…much." Julie laughed and Adam smiled. "Okay so we were. Or at least I was, and I don't really know why."  
"Oh so the whole us making out thing is totally cool and needs no explanation for you?" Julie asked with her eyebrows raised.  
"Well I was cool with it." He said with a smirk. "But obviously I knew we would have to talk, and I guess I was kind of avoiding that."  
"Why?" Adam sighed and put his hands in his pockets.  
"Because I figured you would think it was a mistake."  
"A mistake?"  
"Well yeah. Or that I took advantage of you or something. And I want you to know that I would never do that to you. I don't want to let anything in the way of us being friends or with the team."  
"How would you be taking advantage of me?"  
"Well you just got out of a relationship, and you living here and the team and I dunno. It was messed up of me to just kiss you like that when you had broken up with your boyfriend the night before."  
"Adam, stop. If anything I took advantage of you. Because if memory serves, I'm the one who kissed you, I'm the one who's been coming on to you, even before Dean and I broke up." Adam came over and sat next to her on the bed. "I don't want you to feel guilty about a kiss…or about liking me."  
"Was I that obvious?"  
"No, of course not." Julie burst into giggles. "Actually yeah, sorry. How long, Banksie?"  
"Try forever." He said with a grin.  
"Then why didn't you just ask me out?"  
"Believe it or not but you're pretty intimidating. And besides, if I was obvious about liking you, then you were completely blatant about being into Dean."  
"But why hide it for this long? And hey, you dated a few girls since Dean and I got together."  
"I just hid it because I didn't understand it. And those girls were just girls."  
"Oh and what am I? A guy?"  
"No, you're Julie." Julie smiled.  
"So how about we try that kiss again."  
"What about--" Adam was cutoff when Julie leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. He brought his hands up and cradled her face, and she put her hands on his shoulders, feeling his tenseness ease in his muscles.  
It is very hard to explain a kiss, but this one seemed perfect, to both of them. Adam was the one who finally broke the kiss, but didn't necessarily pull away from Julie. He gently tucked strands of hair behind her ear while she stared into his eyes.  
"What are we doing, Julie?" He asked her, barely a whisper. She smiled meekly.  
"I don't know." She answered in the same tone.  
"There's no way we can turn back from this now."  
"I know that. And I wouldn't want to anyway." Adam looked happily surprised. "I think I've always had feelings for you Adam, I just put them at the back of my mind and forgot them for a while."  
"And what about…"  
"I still have feelings for him too and I know that hurts for you to hear. I'm sorry. I really can't help what I feel." Adam nodded he knew exactly what that felt like.  
"So what do we do about this? First of all the team doesn't even know about you and Dean breaking up, so how do you think they'd take us being together?" Julie sighed and stood up.  
"Maybe we just keep it unofficial, and don't tell them."  
"Unofficial?"  
"Okay, as cold as this may sound, just hear me out." Adam nodded. Julie sat down on the window seat and looked into the glimmering water of the pool. "Yes, I just got out of a relationship, one that I'm not sure I even wanted to end. If the two of us got into a relationship right now, you would be a rebound for me, and I don't want that. I'm living in a different place away from my home, going to a brand new school and I bet you everything will start to change once we get to Eden Hall. I'm going to have so much on my mind that a relationship probably wouldn't work now anyway, with you or anyone else." She said reading his mind. "And that's an issue inside itself."  
"School?"  
"It's high school. You are a cute, smart, rich, jock. How much do you want to bet some cheerleader is going to be all over you the minute we get there?" They both laughed. "I know this may sound disappointing. But for right now," She sat back down next to him and took his hands in hers. "You're one the best friends I have. I don't want to ever loose that."  
"So we're friends."  
"That happen to make out sometimes, yes." Adam smiled and kissed Julie lightly.  
"And what if Dean comes back?"  
"I deal with it then."  
"You realize if he finds out he's going to kill me, and I'd like to live to graduate high school, at least."  
"I'll tell him eventually, I'll make him understand. Besides, need another reason to tell no one? Well okay, one person."  
"Let me guess, Connie."  
"You can tell Charlie, as long as he says nothing."  
"If I decide to tell him. And if one of does start dating someone, we take a little break and just act like normal friends."  
"Agreed. Shake on it?" She held out her hand.  
"Well, I was kind of hoping we could do something else to seal the deal." Julie smiled.  
"Oh really, like what?" Adam smiled back then kissed her again.  
…  
Julie followed Connie's eleven year-old sister in the direction of the room they shared.  
"She's been like this all day. Don't say I didn't warn you." She turned around and went to the kitchen. Julie opened the door and exposed the cluttered bedroom. There was barely space to walk between the two twin-size beds, and the light blue carpet was almost completely covered with clothes. Connie was laying in bed, huddled under the covers, only the top of her head showing.  
"Taylor I told you not to bother me. Leave the cookies and get the hell out."  
"It's not Taylor, Con. It's Julie." Julie made her way through the sea of clothes and sat at the edge of bed. Connie pulled the blanket from her face. It was bright red and puffy, her eyes swollen from crying. Her hair was a complete disaster, falling out from the ponytail it must've once been in. "I got worried when you refused to come to the phone. Obviously I was right to be…what's wrong?" Connie's eyes welled up with tears again.  
"It's over, Julie."  
"You and Guy?" Connie nodded sadly and the tears rolled over her pink cheeks. "But you guys never stay broken up, you break up then get back together three days later."  
"That's exactly it! It's been six days now. It's over." She choked out between sobs. Julie scooted herself over then embraced Connie, who continued to cry.  
"You don't know that for sure do you?" Connie pulled away and nodded again.  
"He doesn't love me anymore. And it's all my fault. I'm so stupid, not to see that the love of my life is right there in front of me."  
"It's not your fault, Connie." Julie lied.  
"I know you're just saying that to make me feel better, but I know you're lying. I was so horrible to him. And now he won't forgive me."  
"As much as you're hurting right now, so is he. He still loves you just like you love him."  
"But you didn't hear what he said to me. He was so angry, I've never seen him so mad. And it was all because of what I did." Once she stopped her whole body shook with sobs.  
"I'm sorry, Connie." Julie said, completely forgetting why she had wanted to talk to Connie in the first place.  
"I don't know what I'm going to do. It's always been 'Connie and Guy'. Since we were nine years old."  
"I know."  
"And it's not even like I can avoid him. I'm going to have to see him everyday at school and practice. I don't think I can do it." Julie remained speechless. Once Connie had finally stopped crying, she pulled her hair into a bun at the crown of her head, and wiped the dry tears off her face.  
"You okay?" Julie asked her.  
"I hate him." _Oh, here we go,_ Julie thought. Connie revenge plot, scene one.  
"You don't mean that." Connie sighed then looked at the cork board at the wall behind her. There were pictures of the original Ducks, the Junior Good Will Games, one from the scholarship induction just a few days before and many others of her family. There was also a whole section of pictures of just her and Guy. But there was one that stood out the most because it was by far the biggest one. It was from a few months ago. Her and Guy were sitting on the bar at the reservoir, kissing.  
"No of course I don't. But if I don't hate him then all I can think about is how much I love him. I need to be able to laugh about this, because if not I'll cry. And I don't want him or the team to see me that weak. It's easier to hate him right now." Julie nodded and Connie forced a smile. "I look like a mess don't I?"  
"Just a little." Julie said with a warm smile.  
"So why did you call me anyway?" Julie was hit was the memory of early that day.  
"Oh, it's not important."  
"Is it good news?"  
"Uh, maybe, sort of, I don't know."  
"Well then tell me, I need to hear some good news."  
"Um, it's kind of hard to explain." Julie said, suddenly uncomfortable.  
"Wait a minute. This wouldn't have anything to do with you and a certain roommate of yours, would it?"  
"Umm, well yes."  
"Did you two finally make out?" Julie just stared at Connie. The face that was just so sad lit up with surprise. "Oh my god, you did. I can totally see it, too. It's written all over your face!"  
"What?" Julie said, self-consciously touching her cheek.  
"So…how was it?"  
"Connie!"  
"What? Word on the street is that Adam Banks is the most amazing kisser. Sadly I wouldn't know." Julie smiled but didn't answer. "So are you two going to go out? Or just hang out or what?"  
"We don't really know yet. I guess we'll have to wait and see."  
…

**7/21/06  
Let me start by saying that I hated the way the last chapter turned out. I definitely rushed it and the chapter was just boring. This is the last summer chapter, finally! Even I didn't except 6 chapters before school, but I kept getting writers block and just posted what I had. Next chapter starts school! Plenty of drama where that comes from. I know a few people were surprised about Julie's uhh well to be blunt, her sluttiness. That she had to kiss people to judge it all. But I like to believe she only looks so innocent.  
Guy and Connie will very sadly stay broken up for quite some time, maybe even till the end of the movie. I haven't written that far yet, but we'll see.  
And all of you waiting for an update on Duck Pedigree, its about half-way done so it should be up sometime this weekend.  
Please review  
The reviews are basically the only thing keeping me writing.**


	7. High School

**((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just the non-movie characters are mine. High School is a song by Off By One.))  
**  
_**Julie's POV**  
_I sat on my bed and ran my fingers through my wet hair, surprised at how much lighter it had gotten since I dyed it. With that I threw all the stuff on my bed into the suitcase that lay open on the floor. The only thing that remained was the clothes I planned on wearing the tomorrow for the first day for school. I opened the door and was surprised to see Adam standing there, hand poised to knock.  
"Oh hey, um, the phone is for you." From the look on his face I knew it was Dean. I went past Adam, into his room and closed the door behind me. I had no idea what I was going to say to him. I picked up the phone and silently willed myself to be calm.  
"Hello?" My voice quivered.  
"Hi, Jules, it's Dean."  
"Hi."  
"I thought you would refuse to come to the phone seeing how well our last conversation ended."  
"Well I had hoped to speak to you before today. I had half hoped you would change your mind and show up at school tomorrow."  
"No. It's not as great sounding as it used to be. What do I need to be in some prep school for? Besides the only two things I had going for me in Minnesota were the team and you." Julie closed her eyes and felt a pang of guilt in her stomach. "So now with Bombay leaving and us taking a break or whatever the hell we are, it just isn't worth it."  
"I really wish you didn't feel that way. The team is still here, and Bombay hand picked this guy and trusts him."  
"And what about me and you?"  
"I don't know."  
"There's someone else, right?" I sighed and tried not to cry. I don't regret falling for Adam, I just wish it wasn't as complicated as it obviously was. I wish it wasn't hurting him like I knew it must be.  
"Sort of." I say honestly, sick of lying to him.  
"Well you deserve him, whoever he is. I was a dick to let you go, and he's one lucky son of a bitch." If only he knew who he was talking about.  
"If you come back you might still have a chance you know. I still care for you, Dean."  
"I care about you, too. But it's pointless. I don't belong there and guys like me usually don't go out with girls like you anyway. You're an amazing girl, any guy would be lucky to have you."  
"And what about you?"  
"It doesn't matter. I don't do relationships well, don't want to add to the hell and drama that school already is." I sighed. Dean had this horrid habit of putting himself down, and it drives me crazy because he has no idea what a great guy he is.  
"Are you going to play with Morgan Park again?" If anything I didn't want him to give up hockey, not when he was so good.  
"I don't know. Maybe, if I have enough time."  
"And what else would you be doing?" This time I heard him sigh.  
"I still can't tell you. I'm sorry, Julie." I shook my head. Unbelievable, he was still hiding it from me.  
"So what do I tell everyone else?"  
"That since Bombay quit, so do I. That I'm way too damn sexy for prep school." I couldn't help but laugh.  
"Okay, we'll all miss you."  
"I know you will babe. Tell Connie the same." I smiled at the memory from just two months ago. It seemed like forever.  
"I will."  
"Julie."  
"Yeah?"  
"I…I think you guys will be just fine without me."  
"We'll see. Goodbye, Dean."  
"Bye."  
As I hung up I felt one hot tear linger on my cheek before falling. So it really was over. I went back to my room and fell asleep.  
…  
I barely slept the entire night, my anxiety and slight excitement waking up. Ever since I was a little kid I couldn't wait for the first day of school. I got up at six and by six thirty I was dressed and was braiding my hair when I heard the alarm in Adam's room go off. I dragged my suitcase down the stairs and put it next to the front door, where the rest of mine were. Next to my pile was Adam's even larger supply of boxes. They were all doing to be driven to the school later in the day. I heard the shower turn on upstairs and decided to sit outside for a while.  
"Hey, Julie." I looked up from my black sneakers and saw Fulton walking toward me.  
"Oh hey, what are you doing up so early?" He sat down next to me on the stoop.  
"I was heading over to the alley to shoot a little. Banks awake yet?"  
"Yeah, I think he's taking a shower."  
"So, uh, I'm kind of worried about Portman. Unless he's gonna pull a miracle out of his ass and have his plane land on top of the school or something, he definitely isn't going to make it to orientation." I sighed and kicked at the concrete. Of course I was the one who had to break the news to everyone. I made a mental note to yell at Dean next time I talked to him.  
"He's not coming, Fulton."  
"Not coming today?"  
"Not coming at all. I talked to him last night. He says it isn't worth it without Bombay. That as much as he'd love to stay with the Ducks, he isn't about to come all the way here to go to some stupid prep school."  
"This sucks."  
"I know."  
"And you two?"  
"Are broken up, yeah."  
"Well this is already starting out to be a shitty day, and we haven't even gone to school yet."  
"Hey, at least we have classes together. And then practice after school." I was so happy to get back on the ice again.  
"Yeah with a new coach."  
"It's still the ducks, Fulton."  
"Yeah, I guess. Look I'm gonna go, I'm meeting Charlie. See you at the assembly."  
"Okay."  
After another fifteen minutes Adam came outside.  
"There you are." I looked up at him and very badly suppressed a laugh. He was wearing a light blue button-down shirt, with a navy vest, a red tie and khaki pants. "Yeah, yeah. I know. It's my parents doing, it's just for today."  
"Umm sure. You know this is like the basis of the term cake-eater, right?"  
"Thanks a lot." I stood up and followed him inside. We ate breakfast then he ran upstairs to get something and I grabbed my book bag.  
"Wait a minute you guys are skating there?"  
"Yeah. You don't have to. Ken, Russ, Dwayne and Luis are taking the bus, if you want to go with them."  
"Even Connie is skating?"  
"It's kind of a District 5 tradition of ours."  
"I think I'd be better off on the bus. My ankle has yet to fully heal from the last time I was on rollerblades." Adam laughed.  
"Yeah, well I'll walk with you to meet the guys at the bus stop."  
End POV

_Adam's POV  
_I skated in the middle of the V, across from Charlie. I was happy to see that summer hadn't completely changed everything. Averman was as usual taking us in the wrong direction and Goldberg was extremely bad at skating. Eventually he veered off to the side road and Charlie followed him. With those two gone it was relatively quiet between Me, Guy, Fulton, Connie. Well Averman was talking but nobody was paying him any mind. Usually we'd have Jesse at the front, leading the quacking. And there was one other very notable difference. Usually the two people in front of me were holding hands, but now it seemed like they were avoiding skating within two feet of each other. Julie had told me that they had broken up, but it was definitely going to take some getting used to. Connie and Guy had been together for what seemed like our entire lives, and it was going to be weird to see them apart. Now if we go somewhere Connie will actually have to find a chair, and not just be on Guy's lap. They both looked okay, but being friends with them for so long gave me the ability to see past the act they were putting on. They were both miserable. Once Charlie and Goldberg found their way back to us we skated full speed to Eden Hall, realizing it was now 8:10 and the assembly started at eight sharp. Following Charlie's master plan we snuck in through a side entrance. I instantly realized we were in the wrong place when Charlie closed the door behind him and we plunged in complete darkness. Then I heard the unmistakable sound of a microphone feedback. This could only mean thing…  
I felt myself trip over Guy's skates and then Fulton landing on top of me. Then all of a sudden there was light, and about 300 people staring at us. I looked around and saw that we were at the back of stage, tangled up in the curtain. I saw Julie and the rest of the team in the crowd, laughing.  
"Uh, hi. We're the Ducks." Shit…

Dean Buckley dismissed the students to their homerooms then had us all follow him to the library where we were told to wait.  
"Good job, cake-eater." Julie mumbled to me with a smile as she walked to where Connie was standing.  
He fed a speech about the rules at Eden Hall and all that kind of crap I got from my father this morning. The first bell rang and I headed off English Honors, which sucks because I'm the only duck taking it. Connie, Ken, Russ, Julie, and Dwayne headed off to math. And Averman, Guy, Charlie, Fulton and Goldberg went to Health. Second period somehow had every single one of us signed up for World History where we took up almost three rows. That was the last class I actually paid any attention too. I vaguely remember going to Chemistry and having Averman assigned as to me lab partner, once again alphabetical order bites me in the ass. But Charlie, Fulton, Julie and Connie where there too. After that we had lunch together. Then gym with Luis and Guy. Health with Ken and Russ, Math Honors, where I was once again alone, Spanish with Goldberg and Dwayne, then the day finally ended. I never thought I'd be so happy to walk into an ice rink before. That was until I saw the Varsity team. My Dad was hammering me to get on Varsity, he had even asked Coach Wilson to do him this favor. My brother was on Varsity as a freshman and by the time he was a senior he was the captain. So for my Dad that means doing it too, and somehow topping it by becoming the captain in my junior year. My Dad is a freaking compulsive maniac, nothing had changed since pee-wees, except his expectations. Those kept getting higher and higher.  
We were messing around playing round-up for a good fifteen minutes before I heard a whistle blow.  
"My name is Coach Orion. You can call me 'Coach' or 'Coach Orion'." Charlie stood up and I thought silently, _Now isn't the time to be smartass, Conway._  
"Well, you can call me Charlie." I didn't laugh. This guy wasn't messing around.  
"That must be what the C on your jersey stands for, huh? It sure doesn't stand for captain." Ouch, that was pretty harsh. Charlie kept opening his huge mouth and everyone kept murmuring their agreement, except me. I knew it was coming when he assigned Charlie laps. I can only imagine the headache I was going to get in the dorm with Charlie that night. _Who the hell does he think he is? I'm the captain…_etc. Then it was time for Averman to open his big mouth and I asked myself if he would ever actually shut up.  
Then he put Goldberg in the net and I easily scored on him. He has no left, whatsoever. When Julie went in I tried the same move but she stopped it without even moving. After everyone took a shot we did a scrimmage, then twenty laps. It was even worse than the 'Captain Blood' practices had been. It would probably have been better, had we not been so out of practice.  
"Stay clear of the Varsity until we play them in the J.V.-Varsity Showdown."  
No problem. Those guys were complete assholes. Classic preppy jocks, and my Dad wanted me to be one of them.  
"Hey you guys look, he posted our positions." Oh great. I followed Connie up to the board and waited until I could see it. I read down the roster and couldn't find my name. What the hell?  
"I'm not even posted."  
"Yeah you are. Adam Banks, third-line, center. Varsity?" Shit.  
"I made Varsity?" I ask more myself than anyone else. My Dad will be thrilled, but I won't be playing for my team. And according to the roster, I was the only one that got moved up. I didn't even bother going into the locker room. Instead I grabbed my stuff and walked to my dorm. It was the in the Richards building on the first floor. I opened the door to see that all of my stuff had been sent over and put on the first of the two twin size beds. I opened the suitcase, grabbed a towel and headed to the floor shower across the hall. Once I was done I went to the cafeteria for dinner, which was just as horrible as lunch had been. At seven I walked to the bus at the gates and rode twenty minutes to my neighborhood then walked another five to my house. I opened the door and barely walked through the foyer before I heard my father.  
"Son. Come here." He was sitting in his office, a glass of bourbon in hand. "I had a long talk with Dean Buckley today."  
"So you heard about me being moved up to Varsity."  
"That. And you and those idiot friends of yours nearly were destroying the stage." I sighed. Of course he could only see the bad part of all of it. "Coach Wilson is taking a leap of faith letting you on the team. Especially so late in the two month training regime the Warriors have been on. You're going to have to haul ass to catch up and still be on the Honor Roll."  
"And what if I don't want to be on Varsity?"  
"That's not an option, Adam. It's just a shame that Julie didn't get moved up with you. The two of you belong on Varsity, you belong with those boys, not those delinquents." He always used the term delinquent when describing the Ducks. Of course he would say it to their faces, but he hated Adam's choice of friends. I sighed and submitted to him like I always did.  
"Okay, Dad." I went up the stairs as quickly as possible. I wish I could talk to Julie, I was so used to just crossing the hall and knocking on her door.  
Everything is about to change.  
**End POV **

_**Julie's POV  
**_I was lying on my newly made bed staring up at the empty ceiling. Connie opened the door and slammed it behind her.  
"What's your problem?" I say without moving, between school, practice and homework I was extremely tired. Plus I'm pretty sure I'm PMSing and craving all kinds of food.  
"Guy." She said simply then plopped herself down on her bed.  
"Wait, let me act surprised." I say as sarcastically as I could.  
"You will be when I tell you that I'm the problem this time." She paused. "I may have loved him but I wanted more with Guy, Julie. He's so immature and indecisive."  
"You mean sex?" I heard her sigh.  
"That night in the hot tub, when we said we'd never done it, well we only said that because we didn't want anyone to know, but it was a lie. Me and Guy lost our virginities to each other on my sixteenth birthday, last June." I sat up and looked at her. Why hadn't she told me? "Look, I'm sorry I never told you but it was just too weird."  
"Weird?"  
"We only did it that one time. It was so awkward and I hated it. This sounds stupid but I kind of hoped it would be special or something, and it wasn't. I want to be with somebody a little more experienced."  
I thought back to that night, and how shocked I was about Adam having lost his virginity already.  
"Thinking about it now I kind of wish I had done it when I had the chance." I say more to myself than anyone else.  
"Why didn't you?"  
"Because I had this romantic ideal in my head that I should be head over heels in love and I wasn't. It was just me and this guy Scott. He was a few years older than me and we had been going out for a while. I figure it was going to be perfect, right? I mean he knew what he was doing, and he was moving away soon, so there would be no awkwardness if we did. Then I chickened out."  
…

7/25/06  
Okay, I'm disappointed with the number of reviews. So I was going to ignore this chapter for a while and focus on Duck Pedigree. But for whatever reason I'm blocked on that new chapter and had this whole chapter worked out. School is officially in. Please **review**!


	8. From Yesterday

**((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just the non-movie characters are mine. From Yesterday is a song by 30 Seconds to Mars))**

_Julie's POV  
_I was sitting across from Averman at the lunch table. I hadn't even eaten anything yet because I was too busy trying to finish my English assignment that was due next period. Guy was sitting two seats down from me, not daring to come any closer because Connie was sitting next to Averman. The remaining five members of the team were sitting there without Charlie, Fulton, Russ, Ken, Luis and Goldberg. Adam was sitting with the varsity team, and he wasn't very happy about it. Goldberg plopped down next to me and slid a tray of cookies under my nose. I'm so hungry, was all I could think when I saw it. Not to mention I was craving chocolate.  
"Just wanted to congratulate you on being number one. I didn't have time to bake you a cake so I bought you a yummy array of goodies."  
"Thanks, Goldberg." I'm not sure what he said after that because he handed me a pastry filled with crème and my mind went elsewhere. I followed it up with three cookies and a chocolate frosted cupcake. Ken sat down on the other side of Guy and ate the other half of Dwayne's sandwich.  
"I really hate those guys." He said in between bites.  
"Has anyone seen Charlie?" Connie asked the table, looking curiously around the cafeteria.  
"He was with Russ and Fulton, who knows what they're up to." Dwayne answered before taking a huge bite of his salami sandwich.  
"Why is he you're new boyfriend?" Guy murmured under his breath. I don't think he had meant to say it out loud, but too late.  
"_Excuse__me_?" Connie asked, extremely offended.  
"Nothing. I just figured you've probably moved on by now. Seeing as how you hate me so much."  
"YOU BROKE UP ME, GUY." She yelled at the top of her lungs.  
"Oh like it wasn't coming anyway. You were interested in other guys while we were together."  
"Screw you!"  
Just then Charlie managed to clap Goldberg on the shoulder before running full speed out of the cafeteria. Closely behind him were Russ and Fulton with giddy smiles on their faces and at their heels the entire Varsity team, including Adam and the cheerleaders behind them.  
"What the hell?" Averman yelled, everyone else was screaming.  
"Let's go, let's go!" Goldberg added while getting up from his chair and following the pack. I got up and ran after them along with the rest of the student body.  
Sadly that was the highlight of the day, all of my afternoon classes passed in a blur, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during one. After dropping my books in my locker I grabbed my bag and dragged myself to practice, feeling tired and pretty sick also. Once we were dressed and on the ice, Orion was already waiting.  
"You're late, ten laps right now." He blew his whistle. We lined up and started skating. "And hurry it up, we're going to have a scrimmage when you finish." On the eighth lap I felt my stomach gurgle and puked into the penalty box. Surprisingly I felt better after that and managed to finish my laps. But Goldberg was already warming up in the net. I skated around while everyone was playing, not wanting to sit on the bench.  
"That's how you attack life, even when you think you don't have any control. And that's how you play real defense." For a minute there I thought he was going to cry. "Alright, twenty more laps then you're free to go."  
I skated very quickly, wanting to get out of there soon as possible. I had a chemistry lab to finish and needed to get to the library. I showered and put my clothes back on. As I was leaving the locker room I bumped into Adam.  
"Oh hey. Just finish practice?" He asked me.  
"Yeah, you?"  
"Same, I'm heading home though. I know we made plans for the great cafeteria food but I have to have dinner with my Dad."  
"Oh no problem. I have so much homework to do. But we have to hang out soon, I miss you." He smiled. He leaned forward and kissed me lightly. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.  
"What?" He asked.  
"What happened to your eye?" The smile disappeared from his face.  
"Nothing just, hockey stuff."  
"Did one of the guys punch you?"  
"It's just an initiation thing. Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I gotta go catch the bus though. See ya." He kissed my cheek then left. I sighed, angry that one of those morons had actually hit him, but ran off to the library anyway. I wasn't going to get involved, I trusted Adam's judgment, and he would've told me if he was in any real trouble.  
I sat down at a table in the back of the library with only one other occupant and dumped my books on the table. I opened my chemistry textbook and started the assignment, not looking at the person across the table from me. I hadn't seen his face but I had seen one of those notorious red jackets, and had no intention of talking to him.  
The hundred year old librarian turned on the fan and the loose-leaf paper he was writing on flew across the table onto my book. I autonomously read the name at the top and my eyes darted upward when I did.  
"Scott Holland?" His face confirmed my suspicions. He was the Scott that I had almost lost my virginity to before he moved away.  
"Hey Gaffney." He smiled and took his paper from me. My mouth was probably wide open in shock. I mean c'mon, this was impossible. I thought I was never gonna see this kid again.  
"I…I, uh, I thought you moved to Hartford."  
"Yeah I did, but I'm here on scholarship." He said calm as ever, and then went back to writing.  
"But you've seen me this entire week and never came up to me?" I asked confused. Had I seen him earlier, I would've spoken to him.  
"I'm sorry, Gaff. I just got the impression that your team wasn't allowed to talk to my team."  
"You're one of the varsity assholes?" He laughed in response. "But, I um didn't notice you be—before."  
"That's because I don't dedicate my time to torturing the JV team quite like the rest of the guys. And on the ice I'm usually the one behind the huge goalie mask."  
"Oh." I said, the stupidest response ever. I was very dumbfounded and tongue tied. We were friends for years on opposing teams living in Maine before we started going out. Then that really awkward night where I had almost slept with him, chickened out and then viciously dumped him. I felt bad, but he moved away a week later so I completely erased it from my mind. Now he was sitting here in front of me, over a year later looking even hotter than he had been before.  
"So you kicked my cousin's ass. It was amazing, I was in the crowd." I was confused before I remembered that he had once told me about his cousin, Gunner Stahl.  
"Oh." _Stop saying that!_ "Um yeah. I mean if it was good enough to earn me a scholarship here then yeah I guess it was pretty good."  
"You were always really great. I'm glad you finally got out of Kennedy where the hockey team sucks. And away from you're parents, which I'm sure you're thrilled about."  
"Yeah, thanks." Was all I managed to say. He knew me so well it was scary.  
"I'm gonna go eat dinner. Good luck at the game tomorrow."  
"Okay…bye." I stared at the spot his had been sitting in for ten minutes, the same shocked look on my face. Once I finally tried to finish the assignment, I couldn't concentrate, so instead I just packed up my books and went back to my empty dorm. Then I did what I always liked to do when I was stressed out. I put on my sneakers and ran until I couldn't breathe. It was my own special form of therapy. Running or skating, either one usually does that trick. After that I went back to the dorm, took a shower and went to sleep without so much as a word to Connie. At least it was almost the weekend and tomorrow was our first game, and I was starting.

**End POV**

The next morning Julie and Connie were in the bathroom of their suite. It was shared by eight girls which you can imagine is very difficult especially in the morning. Connie was at the sink braiding her hair when another girl came and stood next to her.  
"You're on the hockey team right?"  
"Yeah…" Connie gave Julie a side glance and Julie raised her eyebrows.  
"Do you know if Luis Mendoza has a girlfriend?" While it was just one annoying bleach blonde asking, other girls were listening intently.  
"No he doesn't have a girlfriend. But I wouldn't go there if I were you."  
"What about Charlie Conway?" Julie coughed with laughter on her toothbrush.  
"No I heard he asked Linda out." Someone else said before either of them could answer. Connie rolled her eyes and headed toward the door, with Julie right behind her.  
"They have groupies!" Julie said, her face lighting up with laughter. It was the funniest thing she had heard of.  
"Luis, maybe. But Charlie, seriously? Do they have any idea how much of a dork Charlie is?"  
"Guess not. That just made my day."  
Until the game that really was the highlight of both their days. Every teacher seemed to see Friday as quiz/test day, so by three o'clock they were itching to get on the ice.

After everyone was dressed, Orion came into the locker room and said a few words. Well the only thing anyone heard was defense and score because those were the things he chose to yell. As they were leaving Connie and Julie came on either side of Charlie.  
"You both ready to play?" He asked.  
"Sure…so we were just wondering, whose Linda?" His helmet fell off the top of his stick and he stumbled over his skates on the way to pick it up. He walked ahead of them after that, but they got their desired reaction.

"…C'mon. Alright, think defense. Hands in." They all brought their hands together and started the usual quacking. "What the hell is that knock that off." Everyone looked around at each other. Was he serious? First the jerseys and now they couldn't even quack? "Go team, on two. Ready, one, two…"  
"Go team." Everyone said without the slightest bit of enthusiasm.

Charlie won he face-off and passed to Fulton who skated into the Bear's zone and passed back to Charlie, who scored. The band started up and the sirens went off. Seriously one goal was that big a deal? Then a few second later, Russ did a knuckle puck that knocked out the goalie and Connie shot it in.  
2-0. Yay, great, but Julie was incredibly bored on the other side of the ice.  
_Yes_, Julie thought as they came toward her with the puck. But before they were even in her zone Luis with Averman's help got possession back and started toward the other end. Luis scored, but slammed into the boards. The score was 4-0. (a/n: not sure when that happened but hey that's what the scoreboard says.) After Dwayne scored Julie started doing laps inside the circle. Then Averman got hooked but Fulton managed to score anyway. The second face off Charlie also won which led to Fulton scoring again. So of course Julie was now so bored she was singing and doing figure skating movements. Averman passed to Luis who passed to Charlie who scores. Period 3…and Julie has yet to do anything as the score was now 9-0. Averman takes the face-off which he lost, but Fulton somehow got the puck, but as he was shooting lost it. Connie got it back but missed her shot. Averman passes to Fulton who passed to Luis who  
passes to Charlie, who looses the puck. Three of the Bears pushed Julie back into the net and scored. _Shit.  
_The puck got caught behind the net, Julie got and passed it to Fulton, who passes but it gets intercepted and they score again Then their entire team swarmed the bet and Julie kept diving to catch the puck. It was only a matter of time before—they scored again. The score was now 9-5. Without even a single pass they shot again. Thankfully Dwayne gets the puck, but gets flipped as they rave back towards the net. Charlie falls and they score…again. 9-7. _The only way this could be worse if we actually lose_. Or if you loose your captain for unsportsmanlike conduct. Orion motioned Julie over to the bench.   
"It's a total breakdown up front, it's up to you."  
"No prob, cat lady." So much for that. Blake swarmed again and Goldberg got caught of the net, 9-8, 30 seconds net. Just as Blake pulled their goalie Charlie got out of the box. He skated fast towards their goal without passing and just as he was going to shoot he got hooked from behind. With barely any defense Blake scored tying up the game just as the buzzer sounded.

The mood was somber as everyone filled back into the locker room. Everyone looked at Charlie for an explanation, because usually this would be the moment that he made everyone feel a bit better about losing. Instead he threw his equipment toward the showers.  
"The guy hooked me, alright?"  
"We didn't need anymore goals." Ken said facing him. Nobody wanted to deal with Charlie's bitchiness right now.  
"Hey listen I was trying to win it!" He said getting in Ken's face. Julie took of her jersey and sat down, waiting for the bitch fit to commence. Averman decided it was his turn to instigate. "Well mission not accomplished Charlie." _I'll say._ Charlie turned away from Ken and started towards Averman.  
"We let down, simple as that." Guy commented.  
"Hey, _you_ let down. I played hard." Connie said pushing Guy out of the way.  
"Yeah, man. No heart." Luis said quietly.  
"Well what are we playing for anyway?" Charlie said while throwing all of his uniform at the opposite wall. "Some stupid school? The alumni?" _Oooh, Charlie blaming his problems on something else, there's a shocker. "_I mean Warriors? What the hell are we now?"  
"Look man. We're on scholarship. I'm staying." Russ told him.  
"Fine, you sellout." Fulton said bitterly. _Uh oh…  
_"Man who you callin' a sellout, PUNK!" That's when Russ pushed Fulton, so Charlie pushed Russ then Averman, Luis, Guy, Dwayne and Connie all got involved. And that was the lovely moment our new coach walked in on. He chucked the puck so hard at the board that it cracked.  
"No lead is safe if you can't play defense. Now get this straight. I don't give a damn how many goals you score. I want one number on your mind, zero as in shut out. YOU GOT THAT?" You could've heard a pin drop. "Practice, tomorrow morning, 5 a.m. Gotta get up early if you wanna hunt goose eggs."(a/n: if anyone knows what the hell that means, could you tell me?) _Unbelievable amounts of maturity we have on this team_, Julie thought to herself while going through her bag. Guy then voiced exactly what she was thinking.  
"Who took my clothes?" _And I thought our team was immature. "Freshmen Stink.", well that's original. And we're the JV team, might I add.  
_"They are not getting away with this…" Julie said harshly. "I have an idea. Anyone who is in, meet me at the Chemistry labs in half an hour. Bring your practice gloves and shaving cream."

It was a sight to see the entire JV team walking to their dorms in sweat-soaked shirts, borrowed gym shorts without shoes.  
Julie got showered and dressed quickly so she was the first one at the lab. Russ and Ken showed up soon afterwards. Dwayne came down and Connie some time after that.  
"So what's the plan?" Russ asked.  
"Well since the only one of us who pays attention in class is here. Ken could you enlighten the rest of the group as to what liquid nitrogen is used for?"  
"It's used for a lot of things but in lab we use it as a refrigerant."  
"A fridge what?" Dwayne asked.  
"It freezes things cowboy." Russ explained. "And you want to turn their locker room into a winter wonderland."  
"It's only fair after they turned ours into a sauna. It shouldn't take too long. There's a huge tank behind the lab building and right next to that is the rink."  
It took them a few minutes to transfer the tank. Julie, Russ and Ken went inside while Connie watched the back door and Dwayne watched the front door. Russ and Julie lifted Ken up to write their message on the wall with shaving cream. Once they were finished they put it back and everyone went their separate ways.  
Julie was staying at Connie's house for the weekend since her sister, Taylor was staying at their grandmother's. The two girls sat together on Connie's bed.  
"So…how are things going with Guy?"  
"They're not. He's becoming such a prick."  
"Don't let it bother you."  
"I don't. So how's the affair?"  
"It is not an affair. Dean and I are broken up. And Adam and I aren't really even a thing. It's just complicated."  
"Boys are always complicated."

**12-28-06**

**I swear to you I did not intentionally not update this story for 5 months. I hope to never do such a thing again. I just plain forgot about it for a while. Then school started, what a hectic mess. Thank you for patience, thank you for all the nice reviews and I hope this makes up for it somehow. I'm starting the next chapter today so with hope, you won't need to wait too long for it. Reviews are inspirational.  
Oh yeah and Happy Holidays/New Year to everyone!**


	9. Never Will I Break

**((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just the non-movie characters are mine. Never Will I Break is a song by 3 Doors Down.))**

The girls' weekend went as it usually did: they sat around eating junk food, messing with make-up and watching stupid movies.

It was late Sunday night, and the dorms were quiet, as was custom because of the 9 p.m. curfew. Connie was listening to her Discman, eyes closed, completely zoned out. Julie was on the next bed, attempting to finish her homework. In between her studying, she stopped to realize how far away summer already felt. Then she thought about Dean, which naturally gave her the guiltiest feeling in the pit of her stomach. Of course she was pissed off at him for not telling her why he left, but at the same time, she had such intense feelings for him, that she was beginning to question what her and Adam were. It wasn't that she didn't have some feelings for him too, but she wanted to make things right with Dean before she started something new with Adam.  
Meanwhile things with Scooter were just as awkward as ever, especially since Julie knew it was his idea to pull the shower stunt. The two of them had joined together numerous times to play pranks on their teammates, and the clothes in the shower was classic. Plus he was absolutely gorgeous AND single. Obviously Julie did not need any more male drama in her life, but it didn't hurt to look.

The next day at lunch, the team was sitting at their usual table, when Averman announced Varsity team "Check out the new jackets guys." Which in turn led to sniggers behind cartons of milk as Riley addressed us. Adam was standing in his shadow looking a little tense, but nodding along agreeing with the crap that flowed out of Riley's mouth. Something about they were all on the same side now and to celebrate that fact they were all meet for dinner because it was an Eden Hall tradition. Julie narrowed her eyes in suspicion, this seemed a little fishy to her. But the entire Varsity team was wearing silver straight faces, even Adam, except of course Scott who was grinning like a baboon. After being reassured by Adam that this was legitimate, the team agreed to go. And again that was sadly the only thing to keep them sane in between the immense workload and hockey boot-camp with their drill sergeant, Coach Orion. He seemed to be fueled by the fact that they didn't win and worked them even harder.

It felt like years had passed when Friday night finally came. Connie was curling her hair in the small mirror while Julie got dressed.  
"You look really pretty, not trying to impress anybody, are we?" Julie asked her. Connie rolled her eyes.  
"No, asshole isn't my type. But we don't get to go out often, at least not to somewhere as nice as the Minnesota Club, so I'm just using this rare opportunity to look nice. And maybe someone will actually notice." Julie had been in the process of putting on her shoe, but at Connie's words, looked up.  
"Anyone in particular?" She asked and Connie grinned at her reflection. Julie smiled too, maybe Connie was finally moving on, or at least thinking about it. Julie stood and smoothed out the folds in her dress, her mind still racing. "Listen Con, I know the whole team seriously believes these guys but I still think this could be a joke."  
"Jul, what could they do? We're going to be surrounded by people in a really nice place. They wouldn't do anything extreme. And they're not dimwitted enough to poison our food or anything dangerous like that. Besides Banks says it's cool. I think we should just enjoy ourselves and let them treat us." Julie sighed.  
"Yeah, I guess you're right."  
Then a knock came at the door and Julie opened it to see Adam standing there, grinning slightly. "Hey, are you guys ready?"  
Connie snorted as she put mascara on. "Wait a second, you're driving us?"  
"No princess, Scooter is downstairs waiting for us."  
"Scooter as in Scott, the goalie?" Julie wondered out loud.  
"Yeah and it's a quarter to six, so we have to get going."  
"Okay, I'm done." Connie said, while pressing her lips together to smooth out her lip gloss.

Connie and Julie sat in the backseat together while Adam sat up front with Scott. The Corvette sped past the Eden Hall gates and into downtown Minneapolis with ease.

"So, Scooter, why don't you have a girlfriend?" Connie asked while Scott looked at her through the rearview mirror.

"Unfortunately I have high standards for my girlfriends. Perky, blonde and stupid isn't really my type. And in case you haven't noticed, that basically defines the average Eden Hall girl." Julie smiled at this. "Besides I'm kind of waiting for someone."

Julie's insides squirmed and she blushed. He did not just say that. But how did Julie know he was talking about her? But it was pretty…_awkward_, Julie mumbled as she followed Scott up the steps and into the prestigious restaurant. It was even more awkward when he pulled out the seat for Julie to sit down, and then took the seat next to her. Despite her earlier thoughts though, Scott was the perfect gentleman the entire evening and it didn't turn out to be as bad as she thought. Although Goldberg offered her a piece of every course he received, which was really annoying. Adam successfully avoided everyone's eyes the entire night and only speaking when spoken to. Julie was sort of happy about it, in the sense that, she had to tell him that they couldn't be…whatever it is that they were over the summer, but she didn't have the guts to do it tonight. Julie could barely stomach that she had broken the heart of one dinner guest already, so tonight was not the night.

"…I'd like to welcome, the future state champs, the Eden Hall Freshman. Here, here."

Julie toasted to his words, while still thinking in the back of her mind he was a complete bullshitter. He had to be an expert by now. Getting teachers to go easy on him, if not with Daddy's money than with hockey complaints, and then there was the fact that he too was gorgeous. "We're just glad you loaned us Banksie so we'd have a chance to beat you guys in the annual Freshman-Varsity showdown. Now we have one last surprise…fellas, Banksie." Adam reluctantly stood up with the rest of his teammates and left the room.

The waiters entered with the flaming cake and handed Charlie the bill.

"857 dollars?" Charlie mumbled. _Holy Shit, _Julie thought. She hadn't even thought of that as a prank. And she had only brought twenty bucks with her.

_**Julie's POV**_  
The owner came in, starting cursing like a raving lunatic then assigned each of us tasks. If we all worked three hours, then he'd let us go. They divvied up the tasks amongst us and the night crew, and obviously gave us the most tedious. Dwayne and I had to stack the dishes and prep then for the dishwasher. Why in the world that was a job was beyond me, because at home I just throw everything in the dishwasher. It was a redundant and irritating three hours, especially because Dwayne was completely inept at his job.

Once they were done the entire team, for the second time in the last week, did the walk of shame all the way back to Eden Hall. At the gates Russ tapped me on the shoulder and everyone else formed a circle around the two of us.  
"What?" I asked of his expectant face.

"I know you have a plan for these guys." He said with eyebrows raised. "So come on evil mastermind, lay it out." I grinned. Yes while washing dishes, my twisted mind came up with an idea.

"Okay, but everyone has to do exactly as I tell you. This has to be foolproof, because if anybody gets caught we are in deep shit. Is everyone clear?" Everyone nodded. Julie glanced at her watch before inhaling deeply. "Okay, it's midnight. Everyone is going to go change in all black. Except Dwayne, you don't even have to change. I want you to go to the stables get a horse and patrol two buildings."

"What does patrol…?"

Russ cut him off. "Watch, cowboy. Just shut up and listen." Julie smiled gratefully at Russ.

"Okay first, at least two of us are going to need to go into the administration building, into Dean Buckley's office."

"Julie, are you INSANE?" Connie breathed.

"Look all we're going to do is borrow his pets." Julie said with an evil grin. Russ smiled at this, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "Use a vacuum cleaning to suck them out. Another group needs to stop by the science lab and pick up a few things and bring them to the Griffith building. Well, somebody needs to stay outside the dorms to see into them through the windows too. Look this needs to go smoothly, so if you're out say it now." Everyone looked at her, almost in awe. "Okay then lets go."

Charlie and Russ decided on their own to be the ones to steal the ants from the office. Fulton, Ken and Luis grabbed tubing and rope from the lab while Averman, Goldberg and I stood watch outside.

"Ugh, I swear to god, Connie was late for her birth." I mumbled while peering around the corner for anyone walking by.

"Guy isn't here either…heyyy now." Averman said with a knowing smile on his face.

"They're broken up Averman." I responded with a scowl.

"Whatever you say kitty cat." Averman said, and then proceeded to meow at Goldberg who played along. They both looked utterly ridiculous especially since Goldberg was wearing an army helmet, complete with netting, and Averman was clawing at it making hissing noises.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

I felt my heart leap to my throat and I turned around expecting to see a teacher but instead saw Fulton, Luis and Ken standing there holding the nicked items.

"Hey sorry we're late, we forgot where to meet." Connie had just found us, Guy following behind her, with paint on his cheeks. He looked like an incredibly crap ninja.

"Yeah well losers weepers." Goldberg told them with a satisfied smile. "You guys gotta be the ones to sit outside the dorm windows."

"What? Why?" Connie exclaimed.

"Shush!" I reminded her. "Obviously because you're late. Here take these." She handed them a pair of binoculars and a two-way radio. "I have one, Dwayne has the other." Guy looked at me like a kid who got coal on Christmas. "Stop sulking. We have to set up before Charlie and Russ get here."

After making sure Connie and Guy could see, the six of us went inside and found the right hallway. It wasn't hard to spot, there were championship banners everywhere.  
"How did they all manage to get rooms on the same floor?" Ken whispered while they looked around to see if anyone was coming.

"Rich daddies donating to the school probably." I whispered back. "Coast is clear let's go." All the room in hallway were dark, their occupants hopefully dead asleep. "Start by tying rope around each doorknob, securely." I added with a sour look at Averman.  
Meanwhile Luis and I started stuffing tubing underneath the doors. Ken and Averman did the same through the top window panels, while Goldberg and Fulton tied all the smaller ropes to one long rope.  
**(a/n: Okay we all know what happens, I'm just gonna speed it up until after they leave)  
**_**End Julie's POV**_

Everything had gone exactly according to plan and revenge was oh so sweet. Seeing as how it was now one in the morning and they were meeting Varsity at 5, it hardly seemed worth it to go to sleep. Well Connie fell asleep with a happy smile on her face, Julie was having trouble. She had no idea what was going to happen tomorrow, but she knew she was gonna try my hardest to kick ass. She was congratulated in tenfold by the team for the brilliance of her plan. But laying in bed staring at the ceiling she could not help but feel anxious for the morning.


	10. I Wanna

**((Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the ducks. Not the movies' characters or the actual NHL team. Just any non-movie characters are mine. I Wanna is a song by the All-American Rejects))**

Much sooner than she would have liked Julie's alarm clock went off. After practically dragging Connie out of bed, they walked in the dark to the hockey arena. The Varsity team was already there, skating around as the ducks made their way onto the ice.

Julie had laced up her both her skates and was about stand up in full gear. When she looked up she almost screamed in surprise, but held it back.

"What are you doing in here?" She said, pulling herself up.

"I'm sorry." Adam breathed. "I swear to you I did not know until it was too late, they told me if I said anything they would make sure that I wouldn't be able to start in the next game."

"What the hell Adam, are you in a cult? What were they going to do to you?"  
He sighed. "I asked Scooter, he said one time they purposefully hit a kid during practice so he'd fall and sprain his ankle, and Coach Wilson turns a blind eye to it."

Julie shook her head. "You still should have told us."

"I know. Look Julie, I don't know how things got so messed up. You have no idea how bad I want to be playing on the Ducks right now. But nobody will talk to me."

"Adam, I--"

"Just promise me that no matter what happens out there that you won't write me off. Please Julie, you're the only one I have that still believes me." He green eyes stared into hers. How could she say no?

Julie sighed. "Okay, fine."

She pushed past him onto the ice, where Goldberg was setting up in net. _No, way._

"Coach says I'm the starter."

"Coach? I don't see any coach." _True._

"Then we'll split the shifts, I want a piece of these guys." To be honest Julie wasn't nearly angry enough to really hustle because she was exhausted. Maybe after watching a little she would build up her adrenaline. She skated over to the bench when she heard someone skate behind her. She didn't turn around but then he spoke.

"Hey. Can we call it even?" _Scott. _Julie suppressed her smile. She knew was the one behind all the pranks, and he knew she was the one planning the revenge.

"I hate ties, they're like kissing your brother." She said with a disgusted look, thinking about kissing her Erik. _Ew._

Dwayne and Russ sat down next to Julie and the game started. Immediately Rick Riley elbowed Charlie in the ribs with his stick.

"Hey!" Julie said out loud. She turned to Dwayne. "Really?" He shook his head in response.

Rick passed it to Biff Cole who started straight towards Goldberg. Connie and Guy got in front of him, skating backwards. He threw a shoulder into each of them, knocking them both to the ground and continuing full speed towards Goldberg.

"I can't look." Julie whispered, shutting her eyes. Then she heard the Varsity team cheer. "Damn..."

"C'mon Charlie!" Russ and Dwayne yelled.

The flying V failed miserably, so Varsity scored again

"C'mon defense let's go." _What the hell… _Julie thought. _This is bad._

Another faceoff was another swarm into the duck zone, the Warriors all over the net. If this was a regulation game they would no doubt all be in the penalty box, what with all the high-sticking, hooking, crosschecking, slashing, tripping, holding and elbowing that was going on. Mostly the ducks were on the floor, it was painful to watch. Julie was on her feet the entire time. She grabbed Charlie as he was skating by. "Try the triple deke." _Something, anything…_

"Yes, yes, yes." Julie muttered, until Scott blocked his shot. The puck was quickly turned over and back in the duck zone. "Goalie interference!" Julie said to nobody. "Uh oh…" It looked like there was going to be a fight. Charlie, Connie, Goldberg and Dwayne were lined up against Rick and two of his defensemen. Dwayne joined Julie on the bench again, shaking his head. Fulton, Ken, Russ and Luis joined them a second later

Face-off in duck zone, Guy actually managed to pass it to Charlie who was on a breakaway to the Warrior zone, until Adam came beside him and tried to steal the puck. That was until Charlie dropped his stick, and pulled Adam to the ground.

"Shit!" Julie said, throwing her padded legs over the edge. All the boys rushed over as multiple duck-warrior fights broke out all over the ice.

She tried, unsuccessfully to get over to where Charlie and Adam were having it out, and to see if Scott was okay after being rammed into by the two of them. But she couldn't because there were sticks, gloves and players in an obstacle course brawl in front of the net. Then she ended up in a fight herself.

And then God said let there be light!

"Freeze! Hey! Break it up!" _Oh shit…_ "break it up now! Hey!" He grabbed Riley but his jersey. "It's a damn good thing I'm not your coach, now get your team out of here NOW. Varsity team our let's go!"

As Varsity left, the Ducks pulled themselves together, forming a semi-circle around Coach Orion

**((… you all know what happened. It's actually pretty sad, I'd rather not dwell on it…))**

Julie was both emotionally and physically exhausted. To make matters worse they had a game that night. After her shower she laid on her made bed in her bath robe. Connie was braiding her hair in their mirror.

"Adam called." Connie said quietly. "He said he'd meet you after the game to talk." Connie finished and turned around to look at her best friend, who had not moved.

"Jul?"

"Con?"

"You okay?"

Julie sat up on her bed, and brushed her hair out of her face. "Yeah. Just tired. Is it always like this?"

"Like what?"

"Epic, dramatic craziness? Is this what I have to expect for the rest of my high school career with the ducks?"

Connie chuckled and sat on Julie's bed with her. "Hate to be the one to tell you this…but yes." Connie said with a smile. "And you wouldn't have nearly as much drama if a) you weren't so attractive to male hockey players."

"Thanks Con."

The girls managed to sleep a few hours before their 8 o'clock game. To everyone's surprise instead of having Goldberg as an alternate goalie, Orion put him on defense. In the absence of Dean and Fulton, it helped them out a lot. But firstly Julie did not like the idea of not having a back-up if she got hurt and more importantly she did not like the idea of Dean never being a part of the team. Even though they weren't the Ducks anymore, Dean deserved a spot on this team. That plus dealing with Adam in her already jam packed brain, Julie let in four goals in the first two periods. And without a captain everybody was playing pretty sloppily, only managing to score one goal. The game ended 4-1 with another loss, they waited in the locker room to get chewed out by Orion while he was getting chewed out by Dean Buckley.

Once all of that was over everyone went their separate ways to their dorm rooms to salvage what was left of their weekend.

Julie opted to use the empty girls' locker room shower. She stayed in there an extra long time, letting the lukewarm water run over her head in an attempt to set her jumbled thoughts straight.

When she came out in her towel she was not necessarily surprised to see Adam sitting on a bench near her locker.

"A few more minutes and I was gonna come in there to see if you had drowned." He said with a small smile.

Julie's mouth tugged at the corner. She walked past him to her locker, grabbed her clothes and went around to next row of lockers to get dressed. He waited patiently until she was done, then she joined him on the bench.

"I watched the game. Sorry you guys lost." Adam said slowly.

"Its kind of hard to win when we're missing our captain, number one scorer and two best defensemen." Julie muttered. "Besides I wasn't exactly on my game either."

"Why not?"

"I was too busy thinking."

"About?"

"What we were going to talk about after the game." Julie shifted her eyes away from Adam.

"I'm sorry Julie, I didn't mean to be a distraction."

She shook her head. "It's not just you…it's just a minefield in my head right now. And karma getting back at me."

"How do you mean?"

She sighed. "I made a mistake with you. I shouldn't have…I'm just really selfish sometimes, I never should have made you think we could be anything more than what we are. Selfish Julie wanted you to make me feel better about Dean, and it did for a little while, but now I just feel guilty." Julie said without taking a breath. She deserved to be screamed at, she knew. But instead Adam's hand touched the bottom of her chin, forcing her to look at him.

"I had a feeling you'd say something like that." He sighed. "I kind of knew you'd say it actually. I just…I couldn't go on for much longer without telling you how I felt. Now that I did I know that, at least right now it's not going to work." She tried to look away but he put his hand on her cheek. "It's okay, really." She half-smiled. "I understand what it's like to fall hard for someone, those feelings don't just go away. I'm not mad at you I promise. Didn't we say that we were teammates and best friends before anything else?" Julie nodded and smiled. "Okay then. We can just put this behind us…for now." He said slyly, removing his hand from her face. "I mean I thought one good make out session would have you hooked." He said with a wide grin.

Julie laughed and playfully slapped him. "Haha, it almost did. You're really a surprisingly _very _good kisser."

"I know, I've been told. You're pretty good yourself. So am I better than Dean?"

She glared at him, but kept a small smile on her face. "Shut up." He shrugged, satisfied with her response. "So how bad is Charlie gonna be?"

Adam sighed. "It depends. See in this particular hissy fit he had an accomplice, and when that happens he can usual keep his head for a day or two before everything actually spins out of control."

"Sounds like you've dealt with this before."

"I've been the accomplice a few times, but usually the witness and doctor when things go insane. You'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully his Mom and Fulton can knock some sense into him."

"Hmmm." Julie mumbled. "So what about you?"

"Staying on Varsity for now. Daddy's orders." He said with an eye roll. "But hey at least we can win a few games here and there." He said with a chuckle. "Come on _friend_, I'll walk you back to your room."

…

((I honestly don't know where this came from after years of silence. Just tell me what you think.))


	11. Over Dose On Life

((I don't own any part of the Ducks. Neither the movies nor the NHL team. Ova Dose on Life is a song by Drake))

Sunday most of the team spent in the library trying to catch up on all of their homework for the upcoming week.

Monday morning everybody was surprised to see that both Charlie and Fulton were absent from their classes. They all assumed this was part of Charlie's little ploy, they did not know what the end result would be but for a while none of the team really cared because it meant no random outbursts during practice with Orion. Tuesday Fulton had returned to classes and practice. He said that Charlie was cooling down and would probably be back soon.

But he still was not in school Thursday morning, and that afternoon the team heard about Hans going to the hospital.

**((I'm pretty positive that Fulton and Charlie's amusement park day and then Charlie's mom telling him about Hans happened all in one day, but for arguments sake let's say it didn't, because that really messes up my timeline))**

Dean Buckley had excused the team from their classes so they could all attend Hans's funeral. Nobody knew what to say to each other, and especially not to Charlie, who looked capable of murder. Julie just held Connie's hand, and was surprised when Bombay started speaking during the ceremony.

"Every time you touch the ice, remember it was Hans that taught us how to fly."

**((I think Steven Brill is under the impression people would automatically assume that Yan the older man from D2 was the same old man named Hans from the first and third movies. But he isn't…. So the new ducks did not really even know Hans. And where the hell is Yan for his brother's funeral? Just saying…))**

…

Saturday was a rare warm fall day so Julie sat on the bench in front of the Eden Hall gates. She wanted to get out of her room, off campus, and far away from the thoughts in her head. Of course she was sad about Hans, but not in the same way that Adam was. She felt uncomfortable trying to relate to the older Ducks about the death of someone who was obviously their mentor for many years. After the funeral Connie had disappeared, probably back home to see her family and Julie found herself feeling very lonely. She knew she should actually welcome this, because with the Ducks alone time was a rare commodity. In fact Bombay had scheduled a Duck roller hockey game in the park later that afternoon, but for now Julie was sick of being alone in her room.

Just as she was about to stand up and go back to her dorm room a black Corvette convertible pulled up to the curb.

"Hey Gaffney." Scott said. "Need a ride somewhere?"

Julie smiled, _of all the people who could have come by._ "Not really. I was just killing time."

"So kill time with the top down on one of the last sunny days you'll see for a long time." Scott said, flashing a perfect set of pearly white teeth. She knew she probably shouldn't, but she got up and got in the car anyway. He smiled and as soon as she closed the door, sped off the on relatively empty Minneapolis road. He was probably going way too fast, speeding into downtown in the sports car, but she did not really care. She knew he was a very good driver, and it distracted her well enough.

"I'm sorry about Hans." Scott said without taking his eyes off the road. She was about to ask him how he knew then he said "Banks told me."

"Thanks." Julie said, watching his eyes, he seemed very sincere. "Is it true that you guys purposefully hurt other team mates and Coach Wilson doesn't say anything?"

Scott finally looked over at her. "Banks tell you that?" Julie nodded. "First of all please don't include me in 'you guys'. I'm here on scholarship, just like you. And I'm between the pipes, I'm not sabotaging any of my teammates." He sighed and made a right onto yet another empty street. "Has it been done? Yes. Am I proud of it? No, of course not. But I only have another year here and hopefully if I play well this season I'll get a scholarship to a good college." Julie bit her lip, wishing she had not said anything. "So if Banks had the balls to tell you that, it must mean he really trusts you." He said with a smirk. "You going after team mates again, Gaffney?"

Julie rolled her eyes. "I did not _go after_ anybody, Scott, oh excuse me _Scooter_. And for your information I am dating someone, but he's not on the team right now."

Scott let out a bark like laugh into the warm air. "Just because he is on Varsity for now doesn't mean he is not your teammate, Gaffney."

"I'm not talking about Adam, smartass. I was actually referring to Dean Portman." Julie said, trying to downplay her and Adam's brief…_whatever_ it was, the less people that knew about it the better. And saying Dean's name was painful for her because that was the exact person she had been thinking about for the last few days.

"Dean Portman? The enforcer from Team U.S.A.?" Scott came to a stop. Julie realized they were back at the entrance to Eden Hall. "That's a far cry from the guys you're used to be into." Scott said, putting the car in park.

"Well, maybe I'm a different girl than the one who was into guys like you." Julie said quietly.

"Maybe." Scott responded.

"Thanks for the ride." Julie said, getting out of the car.

"No problem. And hey Gaffney," He said as she was walking away, she turned around quickly. "If I don't see you before Friday's showdown, good luck."

"You too Scooter." Julie said with a smirk.

She only had an hour left before she had to meet the team for their roller hockey game so she went back to her dorm room to get her skates.

While she was putting on her white sweatshirt, Connie burst into the room barefoot wearing a large flannel button-down and boys boxers.

"Oh…hey Jul." She said quickly, closing the door behind her and heading towards her closet.

"Woah, woah, woah, WOAH." Julie exclaimed, confused. "Where the hell have you been?" Connie looked down, a rosy blush spreading over her cheeks.

"Um, with Guy." Connie said sheepishly, walking around her roommate to grab her towel and bathrobe from her closet.

"Um, what?" Julie asked.

"Averman went home for the weekend, so I stayed in Guy's room." Connie said, trying hard to prevent herself from smiling.

"For twenty-four hours? What were you doing?" Connie turned an even deeper shade of red and stared at her best friend with eyebrows raised. "Oh…ohhhhh." Julie said, blushing a little herself. "Oh my god, Connie. Are you serious?" Connie simply nodded picking up her shower caddy. "Does this mean you guys are back together?" Connie nodded again. "_Thank God!" _Julie exclaimed, running over and hugging her friend. "I told you! _Finally!_ So, how was it?" Julie said with a smirk.

Connie smiled. "Amazing."

…

After their roller hockey game the whole team went to Goldberg's deli and it seemed like everything was back to normal. Connie and Guy were back together, and if possible more all over each other. Charlie was smiling and happy, sitting next to Adam, who the entire team had welcomed back with open arms. But all Julie could think about was even in this crowded room among friends, she was missing one person.

Back at the dorms everyone went to their own rooms, in most cases with another member of the team. However since Connie was going with Guy, Julie sat in her room alone before she realized there was one teammate who did not have a roommate.

Fulton opened the door and was surprised to see Julie standing there.

"Hi…Sorry, I just…it just occurred to me that because Dean didn't come to school that you wouldn't have a roommate and…" Julie started mumbling quickly and incoherently.

Fulton looked confused but stopped her. "Come inside Julie."

Her suspicions were right, all of Fulton's stuff was thrown around exactly half of the room and the other bed and desk were bare. Julie sat on the empty mattress. After closing the door behind him, Fulton sat down next to her.

"Are you okay?" Fulton said quietly.

Julie shut her eyes and wished away any tears that could possibly spring up. "Have you heard from him?" She asked instead of answering. She held her breath until he spoke.

"Yeah he called a few days ago. Just asked how things were going with the team…mostly wanted to know about you. I called him yesterday to tell him about Hans, but I left a message with his mom and he hasn't called me back."

_Typical_ Julie thought but pressed her lips firmly together. _What the hell was wrong with him, why wasn't he here?_ Instead of saying this out loud she bit the inside of her lip nervously. Fulton did not seem to mind her silence.

"I miss him too Julie." He said quickly, as if trying to cause her less pain, like when you rip off a bandage. "It's weird because we were together for such a short amount of time this summer, but it feels like I've known him forever."

"So when are they gonna assign you another roommate?" Julie said before he could say anything else.

"I don't know. Maybe they won't…that would be kind of cool. But I know they can't until he mails back that scholarship contract thing we signed, and they said they still don't have it. And until then technically his name is still like reserved a spot as a student or something."

"Oh." Julie said with a nod. A minute of silence went by where Julie just stared at her hands, and Fulton looked contently around the room.

"I'm sorry, Julie." Fulton said breaking the silence. Julie took a deep breath in, again willing herself not to break down.

"It's not your fault." She said quietly. "I still don't know why he isn't here but I mean…it's his choice, and he made it and no amount of me being angry about it or missing him will change that so I guess I'm just gonna have to deal with it."

Fulton wrapped his arm around her opposite shoulder and pulled her into him. "I know how you feel."

Incredibly nothing Fulton said until then had made Julie cry, but remembering when she said the same five words to Dean in the locker room during the Junior Goodwill Games set her off. Tears slid silently down her face and onto Fulton's shirt, but he did not mind, instead he rubbed Julie's arm and sat there with her until she was done.

…

Another Sunday afternoon had the Ducks in the library catching up on their homework and avoiding the Varsity team. They had a short team practice for their away game that was the next day after classes.

Julie had remained silent in her own seat on the bus until she realized who boarded it: Charlie Conway. She was more surprised when Dean Buckley got on the bus.

"I almost missed you. Coach, you mind if I have a few words with your boys?"

"And girls." Julie said quickly. Fulton grinned from the seat next to her.

"Yes of course, and girls." Dean Buckley corrected quickly. Julie rolled her eyes.

…

_Are you fucking kidding me? _Julie thought when Dean Buckley stepped off with Orion.

"…All I know is, we're gonna fight it." Orion said. "C'mon let's go win a game and maybe they'll stop complaining."

And they did in fact win. Even though they still did not have Dean or Adam, with Charlie back and Goldberg playing defense they managed to pull of a 3-2 win against a St. Paul high school. But because the JV-Varsity showdown being Friday they had no other games scheduled that week.

Orion left them all messages to be dressed nicely and come to the board meeting the next day at 3 o'clock after classes were finished.

They were not surprised to see that the Varsity team was also there, looking extremely pleased with themselves.

Adam joined them and whispered to Julie when they lined up in the board room "If they revoke our scholarships they there is no showdown on Friday."

"What!?" Julie exclaimed. "They can't do that."

Adam nodded. "See the older guy with the white beard. That's Tom Riley, Rick's dad and Eden Hall's wealthiest alumni." Julie rolled her eyes. "I know…I don't know what Orion has planned but he better make it good."

…

And good it was. Julie wanted to burst out laughing at the look on Varsity team's faces. Her sadness that only Fulton saw had been turned into determination to beat the Varsity team that Friday.

Obviously if they thought their practices with Orion were bad before, everyone worked even harder that week. They had four practice days before the show-down. These practices lasted from right after 3pm until 6pm on the ice, and then they put on their rollerblades and skated around campus.

On Friday afternoon Orion convinced the teachers that they needed to get out of classes early. In the middle of this practice he handed out their Duck jerseys. That was it. All the anticipation and it was finally the JV-Varsity showdown.

**((Mami: Thank you for reviewing! Julie is not apologizing for kissing Adam, she can damn well kiss any boy she likes, because she and Dean did say that they were not together, she is most definitely not a slut haha. She was not regretting kissing Adam, but she realized that her feelings for Dean were much stronger than they were for Adam, and she did not want to hurt Adam's feelings. But I definitely know what you mean. Again thanks for the review!))**


	12. Chasing You

_(I don't own any part of the Ducks. Neither the movies nor the NHL team. I do not own these characters whatsoever.)_

Julie woke up Friday of the showdown with a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. It really sucked that they had to pretend it was a normal school day, attend all their classes and then have the epic game against the Varsity. Julie had not been so sore from working out since Bangor championships, but she was confident and ready for the game. Classes dragged on particularly long that day and the tension in the hallways between classes was palpable. Half of the school wanted Varsity to win- as tradition and because the Ducks were new and I'll give them- they did not have the best first month of school what with the stage and losing games and the prank wars in the cafeteria etc, but there were plenty of students who liked the new JV team, probably those who were sick of the Varsity acting so high and mighty. Whatever their reasons- the entire school showed up to the game.

Julie was surprised to find the morale of her teammates to be a generally positive one, which was good, it helped her when they felt confident and she knew it had something to do with donning the white duck jerseys one last time. Though she and Fulton made eye contact and she still felt a little empty, like something was missing.

As they stepped out onto the ice to pay tribute to Hans, Julie felt the familiar excitement and adrenaline surge through her. The more she thought about this game and the way their practices had been with Orion- she realized winning this game was not the most important thing in the world. They would still have their scholarships and be the JV team, but winning felt good. Especially after Adam rejoined their team, Julie could sense that they wanted to all wanted to win to prove that there more than a JV Team, that gold medals they won together did mean something and that their years at Eden Hall were not going to be spent in a stupid constant prank war with the Varsity. Julie smirked under her mask at the prospect of winning, especially because she knew she was just as good a goalie as Scott…Scooter and this was her chance to show him. She still had not told any of the Ducks about their history, but this was much more than a game to her. If they won the showdown- they would be able to call Eden Hall their homes.

The game started exactly as they knew it would: the Varsity coming out with hard hits and super aggressive puck handling. Julie was glad to have the line she did for defense, especially with Goldberg using goalie skills in addition to her own. She did not think she could keep a shutout, but she could do her damndest to keep her team relevant on that scoreboard. The amount of shots on goal to her side in the first period wore her out a lot. Under Julie's watchful eye she thought the referees had to be blind, there was so much bullshit not being called. But at the least there was still no scores on either.

The second period showed even more illegal checks, hooks and trips. Despite all that they were playing well. Julie felt her heart in her throat when she got knocked down outside her crease but still scrambled back in time to save it. She could hear Orion's voice in her head saying "goose eggs" repeatedly. So in the locker room Julie chugged two bottles of water and blocked out what Orion was saying. _One more period…_she heard a little voice say. Everyone was completely exhausted, including herself. She put down her water and felt exhaustion taking over her body.

And then she almost spit up all the water she just drank when she saw who had just kicked open the door.  
"Dean Portman is awarded a full athletic and academic scholarship to the Eden Hall Academy. I had this lying around the house in Chicago my attorney thought I should sign it…"  
It hit Julie immediately. Bombay went and got him.

Dean briefly made eye contact with Julie and she felt her stomach do a flip before the entire team descended upon him. Julie reached out and touched his arm and could not keep a delirious smile off her face. He was their miracle to win this game. This is what they needed. The morale was renewed.

Julie managed to keep her mind off of what was going to happen later. Dean was not her ex-boyfriend right now, he was their enforcer and the team had one period to win the game, she could not afford to lose focus.

Julie screamed but nobody heard her when Riley practically threw himself at the ground and the referee called Dean on hooking him. But the result of him stripping in the penalty box was highly entertaining and nobody complained. She was relived when Orion called a time out. 5 on 3 was not helping her out in any way, but luckily that three included Adam so she had the best possible defense. _This is it_ Julie held her breath. _10 seconds, Charlie can score on Scooter, no problem, triple deke yes, fake, yes WHAT GOLDBERG?! OH MY GOD! _

Julie threw her mask off and skated her hardest towards Goldberg. Halfway to her team Scott stopped her…she smiled. Victory was awesome. He kissed her on the cheek. "Great game Gaffney."

"Thanks Scooter." She smiled. Having his props meant a lot. She then skated her fastest into her team and hugged them all. Finally she got to Dean. They stared at each other until Charlie called out to them, pointing to the scoreboard.

_Eden Hall Mighty Ducks_…that has a nice ring to it doesn't it.

1-19-13

Author's Note:

So my friend and I were discussing how much we hate when we like a story and then the author just drops off the face of the earth without resolving anything. And then I realized I did that. I suck. I am so sorry. It's ridiculous because all that is left is the final game and epilogue. What's hilarious is, I wrote the epilogue four years ago (just let that sink in, it's 2013 folks). I have no excuse. I started this story my freshman year of high school, I am in my senior year of college. So sitting with aforementioned friend, I read this entire story and realized it's really pretty atrocious. I knew the prequel to this was terrible and had always planned to rewrite but this is just nonsense. The spelling, grammar, POV is terribly written. Just utter crap, I am so happy people still enjoyed it and stuck with me!

So here is the deal: In honor of tonight being the opening games of the NHL tonight, here is the last chapter. You will soon get the epilogue and then I will do some editing on previous chapters. I love you all! Happy Hockey (Let's GO Rangers!)


	13. Epilogue

_(Usual disclaimer about owning nothing but a really unhealthy love for Mighty Ducks)_

**Epilogue**

The celebrations for winning continued from the ice into the locker room where Orion was soaked with remaining water coolers and shouts of joy coming from all directions. Rick Riley came in with his coach, father and Dean Buckley and apologized for the pranks and hostility on behalf of his team. Though the Ducks were going to remain wary, he seemed genuine. There was also a schpeel about how all the athletes were actually typically friends and stuck together during their seasons, went to each other's games etc. Orion reasoned that his brother, Matt Riley could still tryout for the JV team because without Jesse-they technically had a fairly open roster. Tryouts for third line and a backup goalie were going to be held the following week.

Buckley then explained that 100 students had signed a petition to change the Warrior team name because it was too demeaning, so following the end of the season they were going to consider changing all of the athletics to Ducks.

So the celebrations continued. They all changed back into clothes and went to Mickey's Dinner where Charlie's mother worked. Bombay stopped by and congratulated them and the festivities continued.

Julie had successfully managed to sit as far away from Dean as she could for the majority of the day. He was the center of attention; everyone was so glad he had showed up and he explained that Bombay showed up to his house and drove him straight to the school. When asked why he had been missing in the first place his eyes flickered to Julie's but then he made an excuse to the effect of 'it's a long story.' Finally, exhausted, the team walked back to campus together. While the entire team, including Connie sauntered in the direction of the boy's dorm, Julie hung back and let them walk ahead of her. Dean noticed and left the group too, jogging back to where Julie was standing.

When he reached her, it took a lot of effort not to pull her into his arms and kiss her. Instead he said, "Hey."

The side of Julie's mouth twitched up, but she didn't smile. "Hi." She responded, pulling the sleeves of her sweatshirt over her hands and crossing her arms over her chest.

Dean had never felt so awkward in his entire life. Mostly because he wanted to tell this girl that he has spent the last month cursing himself for ending their relationship because she was incredible. All of that on his brain and he says hey?! _What the fuck is wrong with me_…

"Long day huh?"

"Mmmhmm" Julie mumbled, avoiding meeting his eyes.

"Can we talk?"

"Sure."

They walked in silence to her room. Dean followed her inside, shutting the door behind him. He could tell she was anxious to say something to him.

Julie put her key down on her desk and pulled her sweatshirt over her head, placing it over the chair. Before she realized it Dean was directly behind her. "Jules…" He whispered when she turned around, and then he brought his face down to meet hers. Slowly he kissed her and to his surprised she kissed him back. About a minute into that Julie came to her senses and pushed him off of her.

"Stop! Stop, stop, stop, stop!" Julie screamed, crossing the room so her bed was in between them.

"I'm sorry, Jules…" Dean started.

"No, STOP! I can't do this!" Julie said throwing her arms up in frustration. Dean raised an eyebrow, slightly concerned that she might throw a punch in his face.

"Do what?"

"God, I've been waiting to kiss you like that and now I just can't!" Dean wanted to grin in satisfaction but bit his tongue instead. He knew she was just getting started. "I've had so many boyfriends and NEVER felt this way. Never missed anyone like I missed you, I actually CRIED over you. I mean what is that? I felt like such an idiot and wanted to call you a million times and beg you to just come here and be with me. The team needed you and I needed you and you didn't come!" Julie exclaimed, her face turning redder and redder, tears building in her hazel eyes. "And this is going to sound terrible and you can hate me but I even kissed someone else to try to forget about you and guess what? It didn't work! The whole time I just pretended it was you." A single tear streamed down her face and she quickly wiped it away. "I'm sorry." She murmured looking down. "It's so stupid!" She gasped and covered her face with her hands, trying to force the tears back down.

"Why is it stupid?" Dean asked, wanted to break the distance between them and comfort her.

"Because I think I'm falling for you." Julie said, her voice choking at the end of her sentence.

Dean felt the look of shock hit his face. "Jules…why would that be a bad thing?" He asked, a warm feeling tingling in his stomach.

"Because I barely know anything about you!" She screamed, exasperated.

"What do you want to know?!" He finally screamed back. "I'll tell you anything. I swear to God, Jules."

Her tears finally fell. "Why?" She shook her head, finding it hard to believe after all this time.

"Because I'm falling for with you too. I knew it the moment I met you and I spent the last month wishing I was here with you." He said, lowering his voice.

"Then why didn't you stay with me? Why did you lie?" Julie choked, narrowing her eyes.

"I'm so sorry Jules. I wanted to tell you but I thought you wouldn't understand."

"You didn't even let me try!"

"My Mom has cancer." Dean told her and Julie's mouth snapped shut. "She was starting chemotherapy. She told me to stay here but I couldn't leave her alone like that."

"Is she okay?" Julie said, her voice hoarse from screaming.

He nodded. "She got a lumpectomy yesterday, and the doctors are confident that she's going to be fine. Her sister is with her." He added. "I'm sorry, I know I should have told you. I was being an idiot for thinking you wouldn't understand."

Julie bit her lip again, unsure of what to say. "You're forgiven."

"You're forgiven too…for kissing someone else, I basically told you to." Dean said sitting down on her bed.

Julie sat down opposite him and pulled her knees into her chest.

"I've never felt this way before, especially not about someone I barely know." Julie's said quietly. "It's scary. I didn't know what to do."

"I'm scared too babe." Dean said with a smirk. "I thought about you every single day. I've never had someone as good as you care about me. I felt terrible not telling you. So…what do you want to know?"

Julie's mouth tugged into a smile. "Everything." She shifted herself next to him and he put his arm over her shoulder. "Tell me about your Mom and growing up."

"This isn't a fair game, it has to work both ways." Dean said. "So I'll go then you go." Julie nodded. "Okay well my name is Dean Andrew Portman. My Mom's name is Cristina Portman. She got pregnant with me when she was 17. Her parents disowned her so she lived with my father, but when I was four he left us, but she tells me I look just like him. So we lived in Morgan Park outside Chicago. My grandparents kind of took pity on me and gave us enough money to get by, but my Mom still worked all the time. I grew up waiting until the school bell rang so I could play hockey. Whew, cliffnotes version of my life. Your turn."

"I'm sorry about your Dad. Well my name is Julie Elizabeth Gaffney. My parents' names are Jack and Jill, yes I know it's weird. My Dad calls me Leelee. I have a brother named James but he goes by his middle name Erik, so yes we have the same initials, it's kind of a thing with my family. But Erik is eleven years older than me and he calls me JJ. Our house is outside downtown Bangor on the lake and I've lived there my whole life. Umm, my mother is the devil. When I was younger I did every single sport slash extracurricular activity humanly possible, but she really only encouraged the dainty girly things like gymnastics and dance, so I made her let me try figure skating and that's how I got into hockey." Julie said, resting her head on Dean's shoulder.

"My favorite color is orange." He muttered.

"Orange, really? That's weird. Mine is purple" Julie responded closing her eyes.

"Pizza"

"Tacos"

"The first thing I noticed about you was your eyes."

"That's not really about you, cheater." Julie said, smiling at his complement. "How many serious relationships have you had?"

"One."

"How many people have you had sex with?" Julie asked slowly. Dean sighed.

"Four." Dean answered.

"I've dated twenty guys back home. Only one of them ever led to anything serious…but I chose not to sleep with him." Julie said instead of commenting or asking another question. "Your turn to ask me something."

"Who was the lucky guy you kissed in my absence?"

"Pass." Julie said quickly. She did not want Dean to find out about Adam. She was afraid it would ruin their relationship as teammates, especially since it seemed like Dean was here to stay.

"Fine. Are you allergic to anything?"

"Fake jewelry. But because of hockey I usually just opt to wear none at all. What about you?"

"Nothing. I'm perfect." Dean said. "As far as I know."

"I have a yellow Labrador named Champion. Do like animals?" Julie said, her eyes now permanently shut, felt herself getting too comfortable and feeling very sleepy.

"Love them. My Mom has a cat she named Ally." He said with an eye roll.

They sat together in silence for a while. Dean noticed Julie starting to fall asleep.

"You should get to sleep. You played an awesome game tonight." He said starting to shift away from her. Julie's eyes fluttered open.

"Stay." She said with more urgency than she had meant. "I mean your bed probably doesn't even have sheets or anything, right?"

"Yeah my aunt is bringing over all my stuff tomorrow…but I wouldn't mind sleeping there, unless you really want me to stay." He raised his eyebrow.

"Connie is probably staying with Guy already." Julie said then blushed. "Not that I'm expecting anything to happen, I mean-"

Dean cut her off with a quick peck on the lips. "Jules you don't have to ever be embarrassed with me." He kissed her lightly again. "Nßo pressure. Do you want me to stay here with you?"

Julie nodded.

As Dean readjusted next to her Julie felt content for the first time since she had arrived at Eden Hall. It had been disorienting to move to Minnesota. This summer after they won the Junior Good Will games she felt confident about her hockey ability, that she had met someone truly special in Dean and loved her team. The last month had thrown all of that for a loop, but she felt it again now. And maybe those feelings would not last forever, but she knew she should enjoy it. Eden Hall with Dean's arm wrapped around her after winning a hockey game: it did feel like home.

**(A/N: The End! Yay! End of the movie anyway. And where I will leave it all wrapped up for now. Sorry to any Julie/Adam fans, I couldn't do it. I just love Dean too much. If you want to read what is really a continuing Julie/Dean love please enjoy Duck Pedigree, my story about them as adults =) And again, I realize six plus years later-nobody may give a damn about this anymore, but the ducks hold a special place in my heart. Thanks again for all of you who reviewed and favorite me- I really appreciate it!)**


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